Why it's so hard to build new electrical transmission lines in the U.S.

This story is part of CNBC's "Transmission Troubles" series, an inside look at why the aging electrical grid in the U.S. is struggling to keep up, how it's being improved, and why it's so vital to fighting climate change.

Building new transmission lines in the United States is like herding cats. Unless that process can be fundamentally improved, the nation will have a hard time meeting its climate goals.

The transmission system in the U.S. is old, doesn't go where an energy grid powered by clean energy sources needs to go, and isn't being built fast enough to meet projected demand increases.

Building new transmission lines in the U.S. takes so long — if they are built at all — that electrical transmission has become a roadblock for deploying clean energy.

"Right now, over 1,000 gigawatts worth of potential clean energy projects are waiting for approval — about the current size of the entire U.S. grid — and the primary reason for the bottleneck is the lack of transmission," Bill Gates wrote in a recent blog post about transmission lines.

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