Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

20Oct

Cold, Dark and Expensive

Surging energy prices are colliding with renewed grid reliability concerns this winter. While the price at the gas pump has garnered the lion’s share of attention over the past few months, the rising price of electricity and the surging price of natural gas are putting new wind in the sails of energy-driven inflation that reached […]
14Sep

The Next Grid Crisis is in New England

New England recognizes it has a dangerous fuel security problem on its hands. And a telling factor in that crisis is what it doesn’t have: fuel diversity in the form of coal capacity. New England’s overreliance on natural gas, constrained gas delivery system, and inability to site and build alternatives is barreling towards a completely […]
04Aug

Supercharging the Reliability Crisis

For all of the focus on energy policy in Washington, attention to the unfolding grid reliability crisis remains alarmingly absent. In fact, some of the principal causes of the crisis are receiving fresh reinforcement while substantive efforts to address the forces weakening the nation’s supply of power have yet to materialize. Even as grid regulators […]
01Jun

Facing Grid Unreliability Reality

Summer heat has arrived and for too many families there’s deep concern over whether they can afford to stay cool or whether the grid is going to hold up when they need it most. With natural gas prices nearly three times what they were last year, electricity prices soaring and startling warnings about eroding grid […]
04May

The End of Flat Power Demand: Electrification, Big Data and Crypto

A new energy era is here. The shale gas glut and years of flat power demand have come to an abrupt end. Those two constants of the past decade have been replaced by soaring gas prices and the return of rising power demand driven by the data revolution and electrification. Natural gas prices are four […]
27Apr

The Grid Reliability Crisis Spreads to the Midwest

Just a few months ago, the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that capacity retirements and the rapid remaking of the grid will pose tremendous challenges to reliability over the next decade. It was a warning coming on the heels of the grid catastrophe in Texas and startling blackouts in California that some tried […]
15Dec

Looking Back as We Begin to Look Forward

The year is coming to a close, but before we look forward to 2022, it’s worth looking back on 2021 and the moments and themes that have shaped how we think about coal and its future. Over the course of 2021, this blog has tried to offer insight and perspective on an energy conversation that […]
23Nov

Turning the Unprecedented into the Ordinary

While all eyes have been on the eroding affordability of the nation’s energy supply, the reliability of the grid and the natural gas delivery system are now back in the spotlight. Despite the colossal grid failure in Texas last winter, blackouts in California and countless after-action reports and hearings on national reliability issues, the situation […]
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 […]
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 […]