Grid Reliability and Affordability
What Other's Are Saying
"When you do the math — when you look at the rate of retirements, you look at the rate of growth, and you add in the current rate of throughput for our queue — we are headed for some [resource adequacy problems]. And that trouble is likely to find us later in this decade."
Manu Asthana
CEO, PJM Interconnection (RTO Insider | March 27, 2023)
"We’re either replacing plants with less capacity, no capacity, or replacing them with renewables that are intermittent and not always available."
Jim Matheson
CEO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA | March 14, 2023)
"In some cases, generational retirements are outpacing new installations, and this is resulting in reduced reserve margins."
Clair Moeller
President and COO, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (Politico Pro | March 14, 2023)
"Fleet change is not the only challenge we face. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. Electric vehicles and electric heating in homes and businesses are also poised to grow, which could exert new pressures on the grid in hours of the day and seasons of the year that rarely posed risks in the past.”
John Bear
CEO, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (The Timberjay | February 22, 2023)
"The gas industry is like zero for two in winter performance."
Clair Moeller
President and COO, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (Politico Pro | March 14, 2023)
"The goal of the electric system is to strike a balance between reliability and security, access and affordability, safety and the environment.”
Jim Robb
President and CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (Daily Energy Insider | January 31, 2023)
Industry Officials and Experts
"Our assessments demonstrate that the electric grid is operating ever closer to the edge where more frequent and more serious disruptions are increasingly likely."
Jim Robb
President and CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | June 1, 2023
"We’ve been watching carbon capture technology for some time, and it’s at least seven to 10 years to put a system into place in a commercial basis if it would work which is unclear to us at this time. The rule requires it by 2030 and there’s just no way we can make that."
Patrick O’Loughlin
President and Chief Executive Officer Buckeye Power, Inc. and Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives
House Committee on Energy and Commerce | June 6, 2023
"In some cases, generational retirements are outpacing new installations, and this is resulting in reduced reserve margins."
Clair Moeller
President and COO, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)
Politico Pro | March 14, 2023
"… one of the important things that these plants provide is the ability for the grid to maintain voltage and maintain frequency and to resist disturbances. Other resources can't do that nearly as well as large spinning mass generation. And that's why the loss of coal plants and natural gas plants and nuclear plants is so concerning from a grid reliability perspective."
Jim Robb
President and CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
House Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | June 1, 2023
"I just want to note the markets have worked… But what is different is that there is this massive policy pressure. It’s really pressure for generators that are dispatchable to retire. And the retirement dates are not tied to demonstration that the replacement capacity is there."
Manu Asthana
President and CEO PJM Interconnection
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | June 1, 2023
"First, coal plants are being prematurely retired. Second, there is no technology to deliver around-the-clock base load electricity to replace this retired generation. It has to be tested, proven, financeable, and also connected to the transmission grid by 2028 when all these coal plants are retired. In fact, it's doubtful anything will be ready by about 2035"
David Tudor
CEO, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | June 1, 2023
"This proposal will further strain America’s electric grid and undermine decades of work to reliably keep the lights on across the nation. And it is just the latest instance of EPA failing to prioritize reliable electricity as a fundamental expectation of American consumers. We’re concerned the proposal could disrupt domestic energy security, force critical always available power plants into early retirement, and make new natural gas plants exceedingly difficult to permit, site, and build."
Jim Matheson
CEO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"Renewables also don’t necessarily map to where demand is, unlike fossil fuels, which can be transported and burned near where they’re consumed. That means more transmission lines are needed and building them can take from seven to 15 years."
John Moura
Director of Reliability Assessment, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
NERC 2022 Long-Term Reliability Assessment | December 15, 2022
"When you do the math – when you look at the rate of retirements, you look at the rate of growth, and you add in the current rate of throughput for our queue – we are headed for some trouble. And that trouble is likely to find us later in this decade"
Manu Asthana
President and CEO PJM Interconnection
Electric Power Supply Association Competitive Power Summit | March 21, 2023
(About electricity) "It's seven percent of the economy, but it's the first seven percent because without it, nothing else works."
Jim Robb
President and CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
Fortnightly Magazine | September, 2022
Public Officials
"You can’t just shut down your dispatchable generation overnight or within the matter of a few years and think that you can keep the lights on by simply trying to replace. My point of the megawatt versus a megawatt is the capacity value of the wind or solar megawatt is simply not equal to the capacity value of a megawatt. You can’t just keep the grid running with a 1-1 replacement – the numbers don’t add up."
Mark Christie
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
House Energy and Commerce Committee | June 13, 2023
"By imposing unworkable deadlines and unproven technologies not commercially available, this latest version of Democrats’ so-called Clean Power Plan poses an existential threat to providers of affordable and reliable American energy. Complying with Washington bureaucrat’s latest wishes requires technology that producers cannot access, costs that they cannot swallow, and pain that lower-income ratepayers cannot stomach."
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
"Mandating more electrification while making it harder to produce electricity is a recipe for disaster. The Biden EPA’s new proposed rules for power plants will put Americans at risk of blackouts, energy shortages, and higher prices by shutting down reliable energy sources."
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3)
Chair, Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"Today’s proposal further risks the security and reliability of our country’s electric grid, which could lead to energy shortages and rolling blackouts like those experienced across several states this past winter"
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9)
Chair, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"Despite being blocked by SCOTUS, the Biden administration is once again advancing costly and overreaching rules meant to shutter baseload power plants, including coal-fired plants in North Dakota, putting the reliability and affordability of the electric grid at risk."
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND)
Member, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"Commissioner Christie said the red lights are flashing, problems are coming. The problem generally is not the addition of intermittent resources primarily wind and solar but the far too rapid subtraction of dispatchable resources especially coal and gas."
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
"Experts confirm that the new rules will lead to the shutdown of U.S. power plants — and to hikes in the prices Hoosiers pay for electricity and natural gas. Those adversely impacted would include elderly seniors on fixed incomes. These cruel proposals are a direct attack on the little guy, for whom Biden and his bureaucrats apparently have zero concern or sympathy."
Todd Rokita
Attorney General, Indiana
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"The EPA’s new power plant rule will further strain America’s electric grid and wipe out decades of work to build the power generation capacity to keep the lights on across the country, dependably, with the flip of a switch. This proposal, if enacted, would disrupt domestic energy security, force reliable coal power plants to close, and make new natural gas plants almost impossibly difficult to get up and running."
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH-06)
Member, House committee on energy and commerce
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
"We are heading for potentially very dire consequences, potentially catastrophic consequences in the United States in terms of the reliability of our grid."
Mark Christie
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
House Energy and Commerce Committee | June 13, 2023
"As an engineering matter, there is no substitute for reliable, dispatchable generation. Intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar are simply incapable, by themselves, of ensuring the stability of the bulk electric system."
James Danly
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
"We are retiring dispatchable generating resources at a pace and in an amount that is far too fast and far too great, and it is threatening our ability to keep the lights on. Now the problem is not the addition of wind and solar and other renewable resources. The problem is the subtraction of dispatchable resources such as coal and gas."
Mark Christie
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
"There is no doubt that our electric grid is undergoing a rapid transition both in generation sources and in the types of demand the grid is called on to serve. The speed of this transition must be balanced against reliability and affordability of electricity."
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Chairman, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee | May 4, 2023
Others
"We have significant concerns about this proposed rule landing at a time when the promises of job creation and job retraining in the coalfields remain little more than words on paper. The next round of coal-fired power plant closures is coming. But the coal-producing areas of the country are still reeling from the last round, and they are not prepared for this one."
Cecil E. Roberts
International President, United Mine Workers of America
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 15, 2023
"Manufacturing in America is cleaner and more sustainable than ever, and the power generation sector has been making historic strides in bringing zero-emissions sources online. Even as that trend continues, this proposed regulation will prove unfeasible. With nearly 60% of our nation’s energy generated from natural gas and coal, this will either require deployment of still nascent technologies at an impractical pace or force those plants to shut down entirely. With the many threats to global energy security, that is a grave risk to our economy and to our families. The U.S. cannot afford to shut down more than half of our power generation and grind our economy to a halt."
Brandon Farris
Vice President, Energy and Resources Policy, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
Response to EPA’s Proposed Carbon Rule | May 11, 2023
"EPA’s new powerplant regulations go too far, too fast. Regulations must be grounded in what is technologically feasible and commercially available. Going beyond that, as this regulation does, could threaten electric reliability, and raise energy prices to unsustainable levels, harming the entire economy."
Marty Durbin
President, U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute