Jul
6
Can We Make the Power Grid Great Again (MPGGA)?
“The path to a reliable energy future lies not in top-down mandates, but in innovation, cooperation, and respect for the institutions that safeguard our freedoms.” — Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation
This is not an article about technology but about policy, which allows, disallows, promotes, or punishes various technologies.
Under the Obama Administration, we got Clean Power Plan 1.0, which essentially “attempted to force states to overhaul their energy systems entirely, compelling them to adopt renewable energy and shutter fossil fuel plants, regardless of local needs or economic consequences.” In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled against the Plan (West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency), saying that the EPA had overstepped its regulatory authority “by attempting to reshape the nation’s energy grid without clear congressional approval.”
In 2024, the Biden Administration introduced the Clean Power Plan 2.0, described as “a renewed effort to address climate change through regulatory measures aimed at reducing emissions from power plants while promoting cleaner energy sources.” Unfortunately, it “imposed an estimated $15 billion in regulatory costs over 20 years, and greater costs through increases in prices of electricity and slower economic growth.”
“Carbon capture and storage, the linchpin of the Biden plan, remains prohibitively expensive and technically uncertain. Hydrogen, another favored solution, is not cost-effective. The EPA’s cost-benefit analysis glossed over these realities, assuming generous tax subsidies and benefits from reduced CO2 emissions would bridge the gap.” — Diana Furchtgott-Roth
A few more points about Clean Power Plan 2.0…
o “[It required] that coal-fired and many new natural gas power plants must capture and store over 90% of their carbon emissions by the 2030s — or shut down by 2040.”
o “The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned in 2024 that the Biden plan’s disincentives for baseload power would destabilize the electricity grid, increasing the risk of blackouts.” (See Spain’s recent 12-hour blackout for real-life example.)
o “It would raise electricity prices, disproportionately affecting low-income households, farmers, and small businesses.”
o “By constraining energy supply and inflating costs, it would drive economic activity and jobs offshore, where goods would be manufactured with coal-fired energy in China.”
Let’s not forget that Biden’s EPA was trying “to pressure states into adopting policies that lie outside its jurisdiction.” All this despite the fact that, as the EPA now admits, “GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution.”
“And it is unnecessary. America’s carbon emissions have declined by about a billion metric tons over the past 15 years without such mandates. This progress has been driven by technological innovation, not federal diktats. Cleaner air and efficient power generation are worthy goals, but they must be pursued within the bounds of the law and with respect for democratic processes.”
Fortunately, current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin last month announced the proposed repeal of Clean Power Plan 2.0, “a costly mandate, resting on shaky legal and technical foundations.”
Repeal sounds awfully good to me.
[H/T Article by Diana Furchtgott-Roth for RealClear Energy and later reprinted by the Heritage Foundation.]
