Georgia Magazine - March 2024 - 26

COOPERATIVE Concerns
By Jim Matheson
A recipe to fix America's
broken energy policy
A
merican families and businesses rightfully expect
their lights to stay on at a price they can afford. Our
national energy policy must embrace this fundamental
promise-or so you would think.
Unfortunately, our country is confronted with a harsh
reality: We are quickly approaching a point where there won't
be enough electricity to go around.
Sobering reliability assessments
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is the
nation's grid watchdog. For years, the organization has issued
increasingly dire reports warning that threats to grid reliability
are mounting and that more frequent rolling blackouts could
soon become the norm.
Nine states experienced rolling blackouts at the end of 2022
as demand for electricity outstripped supply during a period of
extreme cold. In its " 2023-2024 Winter Reliability Assessment, "
NERC warned that half of the nation faces the same risk during
extreme weather this winter.
Looking further into the future, the picture gets even more
grim. Over the next five years, NERC forecasts that all or parts
of 19 states from Montana to Louisiana will be at high risk of
rolling blackouts during normal peak conditions. Most of the
country will face similar risk when demand for electricity spikes
during exceedingly hot or cold temperatures.
Is this what America is supposed to be? The answer is
obviously no.
How we got here
Keeping the lights on is not a partisan issue. But politics
and energy policy have had an outsized impact on how we got
here. The current state of our nation's energy policy related to
electricity can be summed up simply: Do more with less.
That's just not possible. With data centers, electric vehicles,
home heating and cooling and the needs of so many industries,
including America's farms, our nation is increasingly reliant
on electricity to power the economy. That trend is set to grow
dramatically in coming years.
Opposite that increasing demand for electricity is an
alarming reduction in supply as our country shutters alwaysavailable
power plants to comply with various federal and state
regulations. PJM, a grid operator throughout the mid-Atlantic,
recently projected that 25 gigawatts of power generation-
enough to power nearly 19 million homes-will soon be taken
offline in the region because of shortsighted state and federal
policies.
The final challenge to meeting our nation's energy needs
is the arcane set of rules and regulations required to build
26 Georgia Magazine March 2024
Jim Matheson
anything in this country. The process for siting, permitting and
building infrastructure-including solar farms, pipelines and
transmission lines-is mired in red tape and years of litigation.
Additional threats on the horizon
These trends are not going to get any better in the
coming years.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed a
rule to overhaul the way always-available power plants operate,
requiring them to either deploy carbon-capture technology or
run on clean hydrogen in seven years. If enacted, the proposal
will lead directly to more blackouts, higher costs and uncertainty
for America. That's a dangerous approach to regulation.
An antidote for the problem
We must have a serious policy conversation in this country
about where we're going and what it will take to realistically
get there. Policymakers cannot overlook the laws of physics
or the reality of the current situation. Adding more renewable
resources, such as solar power, to the nation's energy portfolio
can be part of the solution. But since the sun doesn't always
shine, our country also needs a robust supply of alwaysavailable
energy resources to call on at a moment's notice.
The grid can be strengthened, but it will take greater
coordination among stakeholders, acknowledgment of how
demand for electricity is growing and federal and local policies
that promote the development of new power generation and
transmission.
Keeping the lights on is vital to America's economy and
national security. The stakes are too high to get this wrong.
Jim Matheson is CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the trade association that
represents the nation's consumer-owned electric cooperatives. He
previously served seven terms as a U.S. representative from Utah.
DENNIS GAINER / NRECA
NRECA
Georgia Magazine - March 2024

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