Blog

23Jun

The Reliability Crisis is a Market Failure

How is that both California and Texas – the two wealthiest states in the wealthiest nation on earth – can’t seem to keep the power on? Or, how is that electricity reliability in the United States, in the 21st century, seems to suddenly be getting worse when it should be getting better? According to two members […]
16Jun

The Texas Grid is Failing Again

Summer hasn’t even officially started but the Texas grid is already facing another electricity reliability crisis. Warning of potentially inadequate generating capacity, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is once again begging Texans to reduce electricity use. Texans have every right to worry that the grid may not hold up this summer. This week’s […]
09Jun

 Innovation, Not Elimination

When Senator Manchin talks, or tweets, Washington listens. And last week when he took Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to see West Virginia’s energy industry up close, he made clear his vision for coal in the energy transition. He tweeted, “Maintaining good-paying traditional energy jobs as we reduce emissions is possible through innovation, not elimination. […]
02Jun

It’s Time to Reform and Refocus the AML Program

When Congress considers reauthorization of a program or a fee on an industry, it’s a moment for review and analysis. Is the program working as intended, does the structure and funding meet the moment or need to reflect changing facts on the ground? These are important questions that often come with enormous price tags that […]
26May

The Grid Reliability Warnings Keep Coming

Back in the summer of 2019, Jim Robb, the president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), said that when most engineers look at the Texas grid, they conclude that “there’s no way in hell they can keep the lights on. And yet they do.” Robb, speaking to the Federal Energy Regulatory […]
19May

Here Come the Blackouts

We now know that the rolling blackouts that gripped California last summer weren’t an anomaly. They were, in fact, a preview of a reliability crisis that has grown to stretch across the Western grid. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) is warning that the West simply doesn’t have enough power supply to meet a region-wide […]
12May

In the Era of Cyberattacks, Fuel Diversity and Security Reign Supreme

The cyber threat to the nation’s energy infrastructure just crossed the Rubicon. A cyberattack forced the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which transports 45% of the refined fuel used on the East Coast. Gas stations from New England to Georgia are without fuel and it will be days before the pipeline is operating normally, and […]
05May

An EV Future Means Electricity Demand is Expected to Double by 2050. Will the Grid Be Ready?

Not so long ago the electric vehicle (EV) revolution seemed far more hype than substance. But global EV sales were up 40% in 2020, the world’s major automakers are falling over one another to announce all-electric futures and the Biden administration appears to be all in, announcing that the federal vehicle fleet will go all […]
28Apr

The Carbon Capture Moonshot

For all of the momentum building towards tackling the climate challenge, a sobering reality remains: according to the International Energy Agency, fully half of the key technologies needed to produce globally effective solutions need significant support to bring to full maturity and market use. Or as Bill Gates quipped last week, “using today’s technology, it […]
15Apr

Reliability Crisis Déjà vu

Texas, again. Just weeks after the February power disaster that left more than 130 dead, thousands homeless and put 70% of the state in the dark, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) came stunningly close to declaring another grid emergency on Tuesday. On a relatively mild day – no deep freeze nor roasting summer […]