From the Daily Caller
Irving Klinsky
Contributor
A group of renewable energy developers and environmental activists are urging the largest U.S. grid operator to abandon its proposals to prevent energy shortages, according to a letter released Tuesday.
Hundreds of millions of Americans are at risk of power shortages this winter as data centers drive a surge in electricity demand and grid unreliability has led grid operator PJM to propose a fast-track process to connect 50 more power plants to the grid. system. Now, an unnamed group of green energy producers is urging grid operators to abandon that effort, sending a letter to PJM and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying there are no clear “emergency and reliability requirements” to improve reliability. , and the initiative would not stand up in court. (Related: Texas thrives on fragile power grid, posing 'catastrophic' risks across U.S.)
“The proposal is a blatant attempt to engage in undue discrimination and favoritism,” the letter states. “PJM management behaves as if emergency and reliability are imperative, but PJM has never defined the 'needs' it must address.”
Like New England, the PJM grid from Illinois to New Jersey generates little electricity from wind alone and has to rely on burning oil
In both places, the cause is the same: climate activists who support scarcity create a scarcity of reliable energy supplies pic.twitter.com/WIZdCZWwA7
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 24, 2022
Under the latest version of the program, called Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI): Temporarily Accelerated Interconnection Process, up to 50 new generation projects will be allowed to connect to the grid with a large number of previously approved power facilities. Approved projects consist almost entirely of green energy, which PJM noted are “intermittent and finite-lived resources,” requiring several megawatts of renewable energy to replace one megawatt of fossil fuel generation.
In addition to numerous renewable energy companies, environmental activist groups have also come out against RRI. Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, PennFuture and Earthjustice told E&E News, “RRI is unjust and unreasonable because it retroactively Changing the terms of projects that have been waiting in the interconnection queue for years and unduly discriminating against certain technologies.
An October report from Bain & Company showed that utilities may need to increase annual power generation by 26% by 2028, and that U.S. energy demand could exceed supply before the end of the century. One study found the shortage was largely caused by Democratic green energy mandates.
PJM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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