FERC Makes a Bad Call Moving Gas Plants Ahead of the Line
FERC Approval of PJM “Queue-Jumping” Plan Will Raise Energy Costs for Pennsylvanians and Harm the Environment
PennFuture vehemently disagrees with today’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval of PJM Interconnection, Inc.’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) proposal to “fast track” fracked gas power plants over new renewable energy generation projects. This ruling will most certainly result in increased costs for Pennsylvanians and create more issues with energy reliability in the future.
PJM’s failed policies are causing electricity prices to soar and, instead of lowering costs, PJM is encouraging the development of new polluting energy generation that will not come online for years. Adding insult to injury, almost all of the FERC Commissioners expressed concern that this initiative may not actually solve the problem—leaving Pennsylvanians with higher bills.
In short, those “large generators” receiving prioritization through the RRI scheme will most likely be fracked gas plants. This plan will skip over the cheaper, faster, more reliable renewable generators that make up 90% of generation that have been waiting in the queue for years. And it prioritizes energy generation that threatens the health of people and the environment.
“This decision puts dirty fossil fuel energy in front of the cheaper, more reliable, and actually shovel-ready renewable energy projects like solar. History shows that this plan doesn’t work, as it does nothing to help Pennsylvanians’ rising electricity bills this year or next,” said PennFuture President and CEO, Patrick McDonnell. “it directly impedes Pennsylvania’s movement towards a cheaper and more sustainable energy future, putting fracked gas before renewables in this way will harm not only ratepayers but the health of communities and the environment across the Commonwealth.”
Rather than address soaring electricity bills arriving this summer, and approving the clean, cheap, and reliable energy already stuck in the queue, PJM is prioritizing new plants that will not be built and cannot come online for several years. We need real, immediate solutions, and this does not provide them.
Commissioner Chang’s dissent lays out why this plan will fail Pennsylvania ratepayers: “PJM’s filing also presents a risk of the worst of both worlds: it compromises the Commission’s open access principles with no guarantee it will resolve PJM’s reliability issue. By facilitating queue jumping for large generators, which are the most challenging to develop, acquire the necessary environmental permits, and obtain adequate material supplies and labor for construction and focusing primarily on large generators over speed of development, PJM’s proposal may not actually resolve its impending capacity shortage.” This means FERC and PJM are giving dirty fossil fuel plants a free pass to continue to pollute our public natural resources for nothing.
PennFuture is committed to advancing real solutions to secure a sustainable, clean energy economy that lowers prices, creates jobs and serves all Pennsylvanians. This is why we intervened in Governor Shapiro’s challenge to PJM that was filed with FERC in December. This is why we will fight against proposed new polluting energy infrastructure. This is why we advocate for actions we can take today: increase investments in energy efficiency, expand access to clean renewable generation, and limit our overdependence on dirty, expensive, and unreliable gas plants to save ratepayers money. This is why we will continue to call out dirty false solutions and fight for our right to a healthy environment for us and for future generations.