Sen. Manchin: Give NERC and FERC a say in EPA power plant regulations
The seemingly slow expansion of renewable electricity in the United States requires environmental regulators to consider input on reliability and supply before pressuring more fossil-fuel power plants to shut down, a key U.S. lawmaker said this week.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said at a June 1 hearing it “makes no sense at all” for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue to ratchet up emissions standards on coal and natural-gas power plants at a time when it is becoming increasingly clear that the deployment of renewables and other carbon-free generation will not keep pace with increasingly rapid plant retirements in the coming years.
Before turning to a panel of industry leaders and analysts, Manchin urged Congress to require the EPA to grant an audience to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) for their input on how proposed emission standards might play out in terms of reduced power supplies and presumably higher costs to consumers and businesses.
“Having our environmental regulator working with our reliability regulator on power plant rules makes common sense if we don’t want a catastrophe,” said Manchin.
The full committee hearing on Capitol Hill focused on the premise that the Biden administration was getting ahead of itself in pushing fossil-fuel plants into early retirement while at the same time allowing the permitting process for new power plants and transmission infrastructure to languish in legalities and other red tape. The result is the potential for power supplies to tighten further in the coming years, which could undermine reliability.
“We are also hearing growing concerns from grid operators across the country about losing our dispatchable resources before we are able to replace them,” said Manchin, adding, “The administration seems hellbent on accelerating the premature retirement of our fossil plants.”
“Excessively long permitting processes are keeping us from bringing any new generation resources online in a timely fashion,” said Manchin, who was coming off a high-profile political victory in which the Biden administration agreed to clear away federal regulatory obstacles to the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline. Manchin and other supporters of the pipeline argued that new natural gas supplies still will be needed to support gas-powered plants that will hold the line on reliability.
Manchin himself was able secure long-sought federal approvals for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline in exchange for his backing of legislation to raise the national debt ceiling. The Mountain Valley breakthrough came just days after the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said in its 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment that two-thirds of the country was at risk of a supply squeeze during particularly hot spells this summer due to generation being mothballed.
“It’s unacceptable but not surprising,” Manchin said. “I have expressed strong concerns for years that this is what an unmanaged transition will look like.”
The state of that transition may be debatable as renewables expand and utilities commit themselves to sometimes aggressive emission deadlines. President Biden’s target is the elimination of carbon emissions from power generation by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
The nation’s commitment to wean itself off of fossil fuels has entered “an awkward stage,” according to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), in which the transition is underway but many questions remain, including among investors, as to exactly how and when the goal of decarbonization will be reached and when the country can officially part ways with gas and coal.
“It is just not prime time yet and we’re not ready,” said David J. Tudor, CEO and General Manager of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., told the committee. “I think we need until at last 2040 to maintain fossil fuel plants and make the transition (to renewables) in this country.”
Manu Asthana, President & CEO of PJM Interconnection, said bluntly in his written testimony “We see growing risk of resource inadequacy.”
Energy states have a solid representation on the Energy Committee, and the hearing appeared aimed at carving out a long-running and secure role for fossil fuels in coming decades as a reliable, dispatchable resource that could be at least a bridge fuel into a renewables-driven market. At the same time, giving NERC and FERC a mandatory role in EPA regulations would give additional weight to questions about economics and reliability that could conceivably discourage the deployment of higher-priced renewables.
Supply questions remained even with a high number of proposed generation and transmission projects on the drawing board. The witnesses predicted that several speculative projects would likely fall by the wayside at the same time demand is picking up. In addition, minimum levels of electricity are required to “maintain voltages and frequencies and avoid disturbances,” according to NERC President & CEO James Robb.
“It will be highly problematic without the additional integration of natural gas facilities,” Robb said.
At the same time, the panelists refused to go as far as to call for the shelving of the push for decarbonization in favor of economic certainty. “Solar works; It is here today and we need to accelerate it. We need to make the new generation come faster.”
Robb added, “We need to keep our foot on the gas.”
