Just a week ago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the “biggest deregulatory action in history,” announcing 31 actions to unleash American energy, lower the cost of living, restore the rule of law and give power back to states to make their own decisions. Notably, on the urgent issue of rapidly eroding grid reliability, the EPA listened to the pleas of the nation’s grid operators, utilities and energy regulators and began the urgent work of undoing the Biden administration’s regulatory assault on the coal fleet.
As Rich Nolan, the National Mining Association’s president and CEO, said of EPA’s historic actions, “The reliability alarms are blaring as power demand growth from AI and data centers is colliding with eroding generation; until now, our energy policy has turned a blind eye to that reality.” He added, “when the experts—from FERC to NERC and even the RTOs—tell us we’re teetering on the edge of failure, we must believe them. Urgent and decisive action to stop rules specifically designed to target and prematurely close well-operating coal power plants is not only appropriate, it’s necessary and long overdue.”
Mark Christie, the Chairman of FERC said in January, “America is facing a reliability crisis driven by the dangerous pace of retirements of dispatchable generation.” It’s a crisis the previous administration not only ignored but actively deepened.
Over the past four years, as acute power supply shortfalls emerged across the country like a nightmarish game of whack-a-mole, essential coal power plants continued to be pushed off the grid not because the market was telling operators they weren’t needed – just the opposite was true – but because the Biden EPA had authored a suite of rules to force their closure.
The Cumulative Impact
The Clean Power Plan 2.0 with its unworkable and unlawful technology mandates batted clean-up for a blitz of other rules that were carefully designed and sequenced to do one thing: force coal plants offline.
The Steam Electric Power Generating Effluent Guidelines and Standards (ELGS), Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS), Ozone Transport rule, Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) legacy surface impoundment rule, particulate matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and Regional Haze state implementation plan disapprovals all crashed down on the coal fleet in rapid succession. The cumulative impact of these rules made the deadlines in the CPP 2.0 almost an afterthought. And that was exactly the design.
In fact, in 2022, EPA administrator Michael Regan boasted that he didn’t even need a new carbon rule to achieve his desired aim. He’d use a suite of other rules to force plant closures, turning every screw available to apply maximum pressure. And where the courts would intervene to stop overreach or push back against flawed rule design, as was the case with MATS and the Ozone Transport Rule, he could count on the other rules to accomplish the administration’s agenda.
“The industry gets to take a look at this suite of rules all at once… and if you get an expedited retirement, that’s the best tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Regan said. He added, “I don’t believe we have to overly rely on any one regulation.”
Last week’s deregulatory announcement was another critical step in recognizing and responding to the nation’s energy reality. Fuel-secure, dispatchable generation has never been more important to meeting soaring power demand and providing reliable, affordable power for American homes and businesses. Public policy that underpins – not undermines – the nation’s electricity supply is a most welcome development.
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