America’s Power Congratulates FERC Acting Chair Willie Phillips

For Immediate Release 

January 3, 2023

Contact: Michelle Bloodworth 

MBloodworth@AmericasPower.org

Washington, D.C. – America’s Power president and CEO Michelle Bloodworth issued the following statement following the appointment of Willie Phillips as acting chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:  

“We congratulate Commissioner Phillips on his appointment as acting chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Acting Chair Phillips has a wealth of experience and a belief in an all-the-above energy strategy that qualify him for this position. We look forward to working with him and the other commissioners to ensure that the bulk power system is reliable and resilient. 

“One of the biggest challenges facing the Commission is the threat to reliability caused by the disorderly retirement of dispatchable resources, especially coal-fired generation, which provide irreplaceable reliability attributes and are essential to compensate for the intermittency of wind and solar power which are less dependable than coal and other dispatchable sources of electricity. Unfortunately, at least half of the existing coal fleet is expected to close over the next few years, despite warnings from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and grid operators that many parts of the country face potential electricity shortages. We urge the Commission to take steps as soon as possible to minimize coal retirements and to ensure that grid operators identify reliability attributes and compensate electricity generators for providing those attributes.” 

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America’s Power is a partnership of industries involved in producing electricity from coal.