Mark Christie

28Feb

During Bitter Cold Coal Comes to the Rescue Again

When the polar vortex slammed much of the country in January, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member Mark Christie spoke up about the irreplaceable role dispatchable capacity, namely coal and gas, played in keeping the lights and heat on when power demand peaked. Now, a new report from Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA) goes deeper into […]
22Jan

Essential Dispatchable Capacity

While the lights haven’t yet gone out during this winter’s blast of bitter cold, Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner (FERC) Mark Christie recently provided an important reminder of how utilities and grid operators are meeting record power demand. During a FERC open meeting last week, Christie reminded all in attendance that it’s dispatchable power – namely […]
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 […]
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 […]
01Nov

The Next Winter Reliability Crisis is Almost Here

It may have been a balmy 80 degrees in the nation’s capital this week but make no mistake, winter is coming and with it ever-greater concern about the perilous state of the nation’s electricity grid. For all the white knuckling from grid operators during summer months, when heat waves and record demand stressed power supply […]
12Jul

China Doubles down on Renewables and Coal

What can the U.S. learn from China in managing the energy transition? More than you might think. China is charting its own course that is a clear rejection of the West’s emissions reduction first, grid reliability last approach. China has watched Europe’s energy crisis, along with our unfolding grid reliability crisis, and seen enough of the challenges […]
14Jun

Not Going as Planned

The New York Times almost figured it out. In “Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition,” The Times explores a litany of challenges to making the transition to a renewable-dominated electricity system. Yet, in reporting the story, The Times is silent on the most inconvenient truth: despite acknowledging that the grid […]
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 […]
10May

FERC Testifies to the Importance of the Coal Fleet

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) charges ahead with its regulatory agenda aimed at driving the coal fleet off the grid, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was on Capitol Hill last week warning of dire grid reliability consequences from the accelerating loss of essential coal capacity From FERC to the North American Electric […]
03May

FERC Stares Down the Reliability Crisis

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sits right at the crossroads of the nation’s collapsing grid reliability and the increasingly disorderly energy transition. While FERC commissioners will be the first to tell you they don’t have the tiller for the nation’s energy policy, they do have a keen sense of whether the nation’s electricity markets […]