Blog

13Oct

A Responsible Energy Transition Can’t Mean Energy Shocks

The word “transition” suggests a measured, thoughtful change, not a jump cut. That’s why the energy “transition” proposed in the reconciliation package doesn’t feel like a transition at all. It’s an upending of the nation’s energy mix and the jobs that support millions of families. As the global energy crisis deepens, it’s increasingly clear that […]
06Oct

Energy-Driven Inflation is Here

Europe’s energy crisis is threatening to jump across the Atlantic with affordable and reliable energy, the very foundation for economic recovery, hanging in the balance. Supply chain disruptions have already provided troubling inflationary pressure on the economy; now, rising energy prices threaten to push a tenuous situation over the edge. The world – especially Europe […]
29Sep

Dropping a Bomb on Electricity Affordability and Reliability

Senator Manchin began a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by warning that, as the nation takes on the climate challenge, “we have to maintain a diverse and reliable energy mix with the technologies necessary to reduce emissions.” What he soon heard was that the very proposals coming […]
22Sep

Europe’s Energy Crisis is all the Warning We Need

The past few weeks have seen Europe drift into an energy crisis of its own making – a perfect storm of bad policy. As wind generation has collapsed across Europe, overreliance on natural gas as a bridge fuel and backstop to renewable intermittency has come home to roost. Tight natural gas supplies, soaring prices and […]
15Sep

CEPP: Accelerating the Grid Reliability Crisis

Senator Joe Manchin made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows this past weekend, making it clear he can’t get behind House Democrats’ proposed Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), which would throw $150 billion at utilities to accelerate the pivot to renewable energy. Manchin told Chuck Todd, the plan “makes no sense at all.” He […]
08Sep

Don’t Jeopardize the Affordability Underpinned by Dispatchable Fuel Diversity

Just a few weeks ago, industry observers declared the end of the era of cheap natural gas. With U.S. natural gas prices soaring past the $4/MMBtu mark and now sitting above $4.60—nearly double what they were this time last year – that call seems increasingly prescient. Not since 2014 have prices been at this level […]
01Sep

Reshaping the U.S. Electricity Mix by 2030 is Full of Potential Pitfalls – Just ask European Consumers

Proposing to upend the nation’s electricity mix and do it at warp speed is policy that at the very least deserves transparent discussion and requires extensive planning. Tucked into the reconciliation package is just such a proposal. The Clean Electricity Payment Program will throw vast sums at utilities to transform their generating fleets and do […]
25Aug

Strong Majority of Americans Want a Plan to Preserve Grid Reliability

In the wake of headline-grabbing blackouts in California and Texas and all-too-regular electricity conservation warnings in states across the country, seventy-two percent of Americans are now concerned that the speed of the transition to variable sources of power is coming at the cost of grid reliability, according to new polling from Morning Consult. These concerns […]
18Aug

With Natural Gas Prices Soaring, Fuel Diversity Matters More than Ever

The era of cheap natural gas is officially over. According to Bloomberg, a decade of low natural gas prices – driven by surging production from the U.S., Australia and other nations – has finally been overtaken by demand from a recovering global economy. New supply, and the appetite of industry to provide it, isn’t keeping […]
11Aug

Capture the Moment

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill marks a massive leap forward for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). It’s a leap forward that should be celebrated for advancing U.S. technological leadership and for advancing U.S. climate leadership. As Brad Crabtree, director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, described, it is “the most ambitious portfolio of carbon management policies […]