Recent executive actions announced by President Trump will go a long way in restoring the reliability of America’s electric grid, which has been eroding due to green energy policies and regulations that don’t reflect the real energy needs of the country. Under the Biden administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules were designed to force the closure of dependable coal-fired power plants and limit the use of natural gas power plants, even though these plants generate 60% of our nation’s electricity. These rules also raised power bills and cost jobs. Thankfully, change is underway.
COMMENTARY
The electric grid is made up of power plants, high-voltage transmission lines, substations, and low-voltage distribution lines. When power fails because the grid is not reliable, families and businesses pay the price. Factories halt production, groceries spoil, and households are literally left in the dark. We’ve already seen energy shortfalls translate into higher electric bills for consumers and force some industries to scale back operations on high-demand days. The economic fallout often hits hardest in communities that can least afford it, raising costs for working Americans and threatening jobs in energy-intensive manufacturing sectors. An unreliable grid means a less prosperous and less secure America.
Fortunately, President Trump’s recent executive order requires federal agencies like the EPA to rescind any policies that seek to force America away from coal-based electricity. This is important because coal plants can reliably generate electricity at all times of day and during extreme weather events when renewables like wind and solar cannot. President Trump also provided relief from specific EPA rules that would have led to the premature shutdown of coal plants that still play an important role in maintaining the stability of our electricity grid.
These actions build on other critical steps the administration is already undertaking, such as reconsidering the so-called Clean Power Plan that would have allowed the EPA to impose its energy preferences on the states. Although the Supreme Court overturned this Obama-era rule, the Biden EPA decided to write another illegal rule that is in many ways worse than the original one.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described one of the EPA’s new policies as “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.” In practice, this means ensuring environmental rules don’t do more harm than good. It also is a response to warnings from experts, independent authorities, and grid operators, who for years have been sounding the alarm about the reliability crisis we are facing. In fact, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which is responsible for grid reliability in the U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico, warned as recently as a few months ago that two-thirds of the U.S. is facing the risk of electricity shortages over the next five years. Many of these impartial experts have blamed the EPA rules for undermining the reliability of the grid.
To prevent electricity shortages, America needs coal, as well as other dependable electricity sources. Coal-fired power plants, with their onsite fuel stockpiles and around-the-clock output, make the grid reliable and cannot be replaced by wind or solar power. Coal plants have kept the power on during winter storms when other sources failed. Coal’s reliability is an insurance policy for our economy, made all the more important by the sudden nationwide electricity demand growth we are experiencing today.
President Trump’s actions to preserve America’s coal industry are an opportunity to realign environmental goals with reality. A truly balanced energy strategy will embrace all of America’s energy resources: renewable power, yes, but also coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower. Dependable and affordable electricity sources must be the foundation of our electric grid. Sensible policies can keep the lights, promote environmental progress and economic growth, and make America secure. It’s good to see the EPA making sense again.
—Tim Huelskamp is a senior advisor to CatholicVote—a conservative, non-profit political advocacy group based in the U.S. Huelskamp was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017, where he represented Kansas’s 1st congressional district.
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