Washington, D.C. –This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3616, the Reliable Power Act and H.R. 3632, the Power Plant Reliability Act. In response, America’s Power President & CEO Michelle Bloodworth released the following statement:
“We commend the U.S. House of Representatives for advancing legislation to help protect America’s electric reliability and give regulators and utilities important tools to ensure that essential power plants can remain open.
“The Reliable Power Act, sponsored by Representatives Troy Balderson, Randy Weber, and Julie Fedorchak, would provide assurance that EPA rules do not undermine grid reliability or resource adequacy. Our support for the Reliable Power Act is based on years of experience analyzing U.S. EPA regulations and their increasingly serious impacts on grid reliability.
“The Power Plant Reliability Act, sponsored by Representative Morgan Griffith, would enable a Regional Transmission Organization or state utility commission to petition the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to keep a power plant running. A reasonable advance notice of planned retirement will provide grid officials with enough time to determine whether it is necessary to keep the plant operating.
“Under the Biden administration, regulators like the EPA prioritized rules that would have caused the premature retirement of the nation’s coal fleet during the same time period when electricity load growth is exploding because of artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and electrification of the economy.
“The common-sense bills passed by the House would keep grid reliability front and center in federal decision making. We are grateful to Congressman Balderson, Congressman Weber, Congresswoman Fedorchak, and Congressman Griffith for their continued leadership on these issues, and we look forward to working with the Senate to refine the bills as they move towards passage.”