Senior Congressional Republicans are calling on the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to look at grid reliability issues in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.
“EPA lacks the mission and the expertise to determine what is necessary to maintain the reliability of the nation’s electric grid,” wrote Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), all chairs of different Senate or House energy panels.
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“It has been apparent for some time that we may need to protect the grid from our own federal actions and ensure the growing number of environmental rules do not negatively impact reliability,” Murkowski said.
In recent years, modelling studies in the U.S. and elsewhere have shown a path to electricity grids that rely heavily on renewable electricity generation. “Renewable electricity generation from technologies that are commercially available today, in combination with a more flexible electric system, is more than adequate to supply 80% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while meeting electricity demand on an hourly basis in every region of the country,” the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports.
