dataunited-states
Does anyone have a good source for USA electric transmission powerlines as shapefiles?
I have some old (1993) data from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Cubewerx' WMS (Cubewerx are a spatial data provider); neither of which are very accurate.
Pipeline shapefiles other than the 10 year old NPMS data would also be helpful.
The national map is one source.
BLM Geocommunicator is another
There is a history of the plss system here
Depending on your location you will probably need the blm source data and the alt source data.
FSA's Common Land Unit data contains personally identifiable information, therefore it is not available to the public. For an up-to-date data source, you should check for parcel data from the County Assessor for your area of interest.
Best Answer
NERC & FERC are going to be your best bets in getting correct data.
http://www.ferc.gov/
http://www.nerc.com
Not only will you most likely have to pay for the data, but I don't believe you can have access without certifications and clearances (national security threats, etc). Both of the resources above should help you find what you need to do to get the most recent/correct data and the resources to go to in regard to both transmission and pipeline data.