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Walking the Reliability Tightrope

Just last week, the Texas grid narrowly avoided blackouts as the state’s grid operator, ERCOT, instituted emergency operating conditions. It was the latest sign that as power demand soars, operators are walking a tightrope to manage grids ever-more dependent on variable sources of power, policy-constrained supplies of thermal generation and inadequate infrastructure. As E&E News […]

Stumbling out of the Blocks

With the perilous state of the nation’s electricity supply increasingly in the spotlight, the Biden administration has attempted to justify its regulatory blitz on the coal and gas fleets by pointing to what it hopes will be a lightning-fast renewable energy buildout. According to the administration’s narrative, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its largess […]

The Energy Policy Torpedo

The nation’s grid reliability watchdog added an alarming new dimension to its regular warnings over the eroding state of the nation’s grid reliability. For the first time, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is warning that energy policy now directly threatens reliability. In the latest edition of NERC’s Reliability Risk Priorities Report, the authors […]

The EPA’s plan to break the electricity grid

Via The Register-Herald: Searing heat has pushed the U.S. power grid to the very limit this summer. The reliability of our power supply is hanging by a thread, with new power demand records set weekly. The nation’s top power reliability experts have repeatedly warned that we’re in a power supply crisis. But the Biden administration’s […]

We’re Still Not Talking Enough About Power Demand

Electricity demand records are falling daily. In Texas, the state’s grid operator has reported 10 new all-time highs in demand this summer with another new peak expected this week. In the Southwest Power Pool, which runs the grid in parts of 15 states, power demand hit an all-time high on Monday. And the operator that […]

EPA’s UnINiformed Decisions

Who exactly did the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consult about grid reliability when constructing its so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0? Formal comments on the rule have made it rather clear who EPA didn’t consult: the very folks tasked with keeping the lights on have made it abundantly clear the rule is a grave danger […]

No Energy Transition Without a Reliable Electric Power Grid

Via TheMessenger.com July 2023 was the hottest month on record, both for the United States and the entire planet.  What is more, according to climatologists, we’re likely to witness elevated average temperatures for the foreseeable future. Surprisingly, the three American power grids — the Eastern Interconnect, the Western Interconnect, and Texas’s ERCOT — have held […]

Unworkable and Unlawful

With the U.S. power grid hanging on by a thread, and coal and natural gas plants working overtime to meet soaring power demand this summer, all eyes are on the fate of the so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 and the threat posed by the rule to the nation’s grid reliability. Last week, 39 senators wrote […]

U.S. Miners Make American Life Possible

As the U.S. labor market cools and employment gains slow, the mining industry continues to provide extraordinary career opportunities about which most Americans know very little. When asked to describe a day in the life of a miner, most think of pickaxes and canaries instead of the remotely-operated machinery, artificial intelligence and other innovations that […]

Meeting Global Demand

How important is American coal to the global energy mix? Consider that in 2022 U.S. coal exports went to 71 countries and U.S. coal played a critical role in helping Europe pivot away from Russian energy, filling yawning supply gaps during the worst energy crisis since the 1970s. The U.S. exported 84.8 million short tons […]