Beyond the Queue The regulatory map that determines where America's next infrastructure actually gets built.

Queue data tells you where projects want to be. Regulation tells you where they'll actually be built.

The interconnection queue is the most widely cited data set in US power-sector capital allocation — and the most widely misread. It measures demand to build, not probability of completion. In PJM, the largest grid operator, 10.9% of proposed capacity has reached commercial operation; withdrawal rates run from 63% to 83% across the four ISOs studied.

Beyond the Queue maps the missing variable. It links queue positions to six dimensions of state-level regulatory environment — legislative direction, permitting timelines, utility commission posture, zoning, environmental constraints, legal-challenge history — to produce a composite Regulatory Risk Score by state.

• The scale of the 2,059 GW backlog across PJM, CAISO, ISO-NE and NYISO, broken down by ISO and technology — and why solar, storage and offshore wind fail most.
• The financial mechanism that kills transition technologies in the queue, and how long survivors take to complete.
• The six dimensions of regulatory risk, the Regulatory Risk Score, and a worked county comparison (Loudoun County, Virginia against Greene County, Pennsylvania).
• Regions in focus — PJM, CAISO, NYISO and ISO-NE — with acceleration zones, friction zones, and where queue meets regulation.
• The data centre dimension: how AI-driven large-load demand is rewriting the regulatory landscape in real time.
• Implications for capital allocation: where the convergence zones are, and where the dead zones sit.