Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

27Dec

2023 in Review

The year is coming to a close but, before the ball drops and we ring in 2024, it’s worth looking back on the energy stories and themes that shaped 2023 and coal’s role in them. Globally, coal demand hit an all-time high while at home – despite ever-louder warnings about imploding grid reliability – the […]
07Sep

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 […]
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 […]
24May

The Biden Administration’s Arithmetic Problem

The Biden administration is building its entire energy agenda on a foundation of speed. Or as some members of the Biden energy team like to say, “deploy, deploy, deploy.” Their mandate is to build wind turbines, solar arrays, site transmission lines and reshore supply chains overnight while the U.S. (EPA) Environmental Protection Agency simultaneously tears […]
13Apr

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is having a hard time getting its story straight. A year ago, EPA administrator Michael Regan announced that he would be using the full suite of his authorities to give as clear a signal as possible to utilities to close coal plants. He said he’d be rolling out an […]
15Feb

Does the EPA Care at All About Grid Reliability?

In July of last year, 26 House Republicans sent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan a letter asking for details on the agency’s efforts to assess the potential grid reliability threats posed by EPA’s regulatory agenda. Among other detailed questions, the letter asked what work had been done to coordinate with the Federal […]
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 […]