Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

13Dec

A System on the Brink

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) latest long-term reliability assessment is clear: the bulk power system is in crisis and the energy transition is being woefully mismanaged. The report reveals surging electricity demand, potential supply shortfalls under both extreme weather conditions and normal operating conditions, as well as alarming peak capacity deficits in grids […]
29Nov

The Power Demand Surge

There is a quiet revolution upending the trajectory of our energy future. For all the extraordinary challenges inherent with trying to stand up a renewable-dominant energy mix nearly overnight, perhaps none is beginning to loom as large as the breakneck speed electricity demand is growing all over the country. Speculation about the impact that electrification, […]
20Nov

Can the Biden EPA Accept Reality?

As The Wall Street Journal recently put it, “the energy transition is getting a dose of reality.” In the U.S., offshore wind projects are evaporating, transmission lines remain extraordinarily difficult to build, the nation’s first planned small modular reactor project was just cancelled and dozens of renewable-power developers are trying to rewrite contracts to recoup […]
15Nov

With All Alarms Sounding, EPA Has Few Answers and Less Planning

In the hours before the regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sat down with stakeholders from across the country to discuss the nation’s deteriorating grid reliability, the urgency of the gathering was underscored by a new and deeply unsettling winter reliability assessment. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found in its most […]
08Nov

Will FERC Hold EPA to Account?

This Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is holding its annual technical conference on grid reliability. Of particular interest is the attention FERC and its expert witnesses will give to examining the impact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) so-called Clean Power Plan 2.0 will have on reliability. FERC is digging into reliability at […]
24Oct

Congress Can Act on Grid Reliability

Months of congressional hearings have led to a crescendo of concern over grid reliability and the danger posed by the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda. With eye-opening testimony coming from utilities, co-ops, grid operators and reliability regulators, Congress now has a deeply important opportunity to take action. Today, the House Energy, Climate & Grid Security Subcommittee […]
04Oct

The Gas Reliability Gap

The U.S. has a natural gas problem. While regulatory pressure continues to place an ever-greater burden on the gas fleet and gas infrastructure to provide dispatchable power when it’s needed most, the gas system is again and again showing it’s simply not up to the challenge. The latest alarming example comes from the after-action report […]
30Aug

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 […]
16Aug

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 […]