Recently, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Mark Christie responded to questions from the leadership of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Carbon Rule. Among other things, FERC is responsible for ensuring the reliability of our nation’s electricity supply.
Commissioner Christie’s answers emphasized the severe risks posed by the rule, which would force the premature retirement of coal plants that are essential to Kentucky’s electric reliability. Highlighted below a few excerpts from his responses:
- “If the EPA’s new power plant rule survives court challenge, it will force the retirements of nearly all remaining coal generation plants and will prevent the construction of vitally needed new combined-cycle baseload gas generation. This loss of vitally needed dispatchable generation resources will be catastrophic.”
- “The so-called ‘reliability assurance mechanism’ in the final rule … will not materially alleviate the fundamental threats to reliability the rule will cause.”
- “The reality is that if the grid has a serious shortfall in power generation resources because necessary resources have retired prematurely, FERC cannot simply order them back onto the grid. Once these needed resources retire, they are gone.”
Kentucky’s economy depends on affordable and reliable electricity. The Carbon Rule would cause electricity to be less reliable and less affordable, which is why Kentucky and twenty-six other states are seeking to overturn the rule in court.
Dependable Power First Kentucky is grateful to Commissioner Christie for continuing to highlight this important issue. You can read his full comments here: https://www.dependablepowerky.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Christie-Letter.pdf
