Energy agency sides with coal and gas over other sources for electricity, says it's leveling the field; consumers will pay

PJM Interconnection's service areas

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved rules "for the nation's largest electricity market that effectively prop up fossil-fuel power plants and discourage new investments in renewable power, demand-response and energy-storage projects," Rod Kuckro and Jeremy Dillon report for Energy & Environment News.

FERC changed the rules for PJM Interconnection, the largest electric-power manager in North America, "508 days after the agency issued a decision calling the current market rules unjust and unreasonable and directing PJM to devise a fix," E&E reports. "The decision is among the most consequential by the commission since it created regional power markets 20 years ago this week. It's certain to be challenged. . . .The agency gave PJM 90 days to file a response on how it will comply."

The vote was 2-1, along party lines. Dissenting Commissioner Richard Glick called it "a bailout, plain and simple" to the power industry and its suppliers of coal and natural gas. The PJM area has more electric-generating capacity than it needs, and "cheaper renewables and nuclear plants have been crushing conventional fossil fuel resources on price" there, E&E notes. PJM had asked FERC not to force it to buy electricity from aging coal plants.

FERC Chair Neil Chatterjee denied that the move favors fossil fuels over renewables. He and the other Republican commissioner, Bernard McNamee, "argued that state subsidies for nuclear and renewables artificially give those resources a leg up," and said FERC was "leveling the playing field," E&E reports. Glick said the move would cost the 65 million consumers in PJM's area $2.4 billion a year; other estimates were as high as $8 billion.