# How data centers are complicating transmission expansion

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041/how-data-centers-are-complicating-transmission-expansion
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041/how-data-centers-are-complicating-transmission-expansion.md
Podcast: [Catalyst with Shayle Kann](https://stenobird.com/podcast/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041)
Published: 2026-06-25T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/PSMI9788046180.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/PSMI9788046180.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041/episodes/how-data-centers-are-complicating-transmission-expansion
Duration seconds: 1835

## Resource

Electric transmission development is notoriously difficult, and these days, NIMBYism gets the brunt of the blame. But as data center loads surge and electricity prices climb, there’s a new roadblock – the messy world of multi-state cost allocation. The Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) — a planned 100-mile, $960 million transmission line stretching across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia — was approved by PJM in 2022 under standard rules that spread costs across the entire region. But that plan was made before ChatGPT took off and data center forecasts shot upwards. Fast forward four years, and now state consumer advocates are asking why local ratepayers should foot the bill for an infrastructure project designed to feed data centers in northern Virginia. In this episode, Shayle sits down with Maeve Allsup, senior reporter at Latitude Media, to unpack her reporting on the project. They dive into how the rise of generative AI has disrupted traditional grid planning and explore why this challenge has proven to be such an impactful rate limiter for the AI boom. [Correction: In this episode, Shayle and Maeve refer to MARL as the Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line. The correct name is the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link. We regret the error.] Shayle and Maeve discuss topics like: - How a project approved in 2022 hit a vastly different policy and regulatory landscape by the time it reached state dockets - Why data center growth breaks the historic assumption that regional transmission costs eventually "even out" between states - How the Ratepayer Protection Pledge — a voluntary commitment signed by tech hyperscalers at the White House — is being harnessed by state advocates as a cudgel to demand data centers pay for grid upgrades - Why the United States has gone…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041/episodes/how-data-centers-are-complicating-transmission-expansion/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/catalyst-with-shayle-kann-4458041/how-data-centers-are-complicating-transmission-expansion.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.