Those in charge of overseeing the nation’s power sector and natural gas pipelines sounded the alarm Tuesday that Americans may soon be forced to spend more of their time without the lights on.
Members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told lawmakers the U.S. power grid is at grave risk of lacking the energy needed to prevent rolling blackouts because coal and natural gas plants are being shuttered too quickly amid the transition to clean energy.
“I think we’re heading for potentially very dire consequences — potentially catastrophic consequences — in the United States in terms of the reliability of our grid,” FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, one of two Senate-confirmed Republicans who sit on the independent agency panel, testified to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“The problem is not the addition of wind and solar,” he continued. “The problem is the subtraction of coal and gas and other dispatchable resources, which are the ones that we need during this transition to keep the lights on.”
FERC Commissioner James Danly, the agency’s other Republican member, cited similar grid reliability concerns that he blamed on subsidies for renewables that “warp” the energy market and on FERC “removing the guardrails” to retain existing power generation from fossil fuels.
“The United States is heading toward a reliability crisis in our electric markets,” he said.
The bleak assessments come in the wake of other warnings that rolling blackouts could be on the horizon this summer, when demand for energy peaks.
Two-thirds of the country is at risk of power outages this summer because of a strained grid from fewer power plants, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. recently forecast. The country could weather the storm without much fanfare if extreme events, thanks to El Nino, don’t occur. The only areas likely safe from major blackouts are mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states.
The warnings come amid blowback from Republicans and the energy industry over proposed environmental rules from the Biden administration that could force thousands of natural gas- and coal-fired power plants to soon close. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed stringent emission guidelines last month that will force fossil fuel plants to implement costly carbon capture technology, switch to renewables or shutter altogether if they fail to reduce or capture nearly all of their emissions by 2040.
Natural gas- and coal-fired power plants account for roughly 60% of the country’s electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This year, the EIA projects 4.5% of power generated from coal and 1.3% from natural gas will retire.
“FERC is supposed to operate as an independent agency,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican. “Yet, under the Biden administration, we saw we’ve seen a strong shift with FERC unnecessarily delaying natural gas permits and supporting a forced transition to less reliable weather-dependent wind, solar and battery resources.”
Two Democrats also sit on FERC: Chairman Willie Phillips and Commissioner Allison Clements. The fifth seat was held by ex-Chairman Richard Glick, a Democrat, but he was not reconfirmed to his position by the end of 2022 due to opposition from Senate Energy Committee Chairman Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat.
FERC commissioners serve five-year terms and must receive Senate confirmation after being nominated by the president.
Mr. Phillips and Ms. Clements also expressed concern to lawmakers Tuesday about the nation’s grid reliability, but they downplayed the severity compared with their Republican FERC colleagues.
“We’ve seen a trend where electric reliability has worsened somewhat. We’re beginning to change that trend under my leadership,” said Mr. Phillips, who took over as chairman in January.
Ms. Clements said, “I think it’s a region-specific question. Given any time of year, it’s a seasonal question. It’s a question of extreme weather and what type of stressors hit our systems.”
Consumers may soon once again be faced with summer requests to conserve energy by cranking up their thermostats or avoid using large appliances during peak hours — if they want to keep the lights on.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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