Why can't states simply share energy to avoid blackouts? Bolstering U.S. grids requires multi-faceted plans.

As power grids across the U.S. face more challenges, including dramatic increases in national energy needs, such as electricity-sapping data centers and extreme weather fluctuations across entire regions, some Americans may be wondering why a regional grid under strain can't just borrow from a neighboring state's grid that has plenty.

There are few links between the U.S. Eastern, Western and ERCOT interconnections. (ERCOT map)

The answer is to that question is simple and complex, energy experts Sufan Jiang and Fangxing Fran Li write for The Conversation. "The U.S. bulk power system is not one seamless national grid, but three major grid regions known as interconnections — the Eastern, Western and ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) systems. There are very few transmission lines between them, so if one has too little power, the others may not be able to help much."

In February 2021, Texas was clobbered by a series of brutal winter storms that dumped snow and ice across the state while simultaneously keeping temperatures below zero for days. Because Texas owns its own grid and shares few transmission lines with other states, ERCOT was "forced into the largest deliberate electricity shutoff in U.S. history. Operators cut power to millions of customers to avoid a total grid collapse," Jiang and Li explain. ERCOT's blackout left more than 4.5 million homes and businesses without power.

The Southern Spirit Transmission line will connect Texas to 
the Southeastern grids for power sharing. (Pattern Energy map)

In an effort to give ERCOT more options during another energy crisis, the "Southern Spirit Transmission project was announced by the Department of Energy in 2024," Jiang and Li explain. That addition "would include a 320-mile transmission line connecting Texas with Louisiana and Mississippi."

In its simplest form, a transmission line connects energy providers so they can share power. But when it comes to natural disasters and extreme weather, power lines have to withstand the storm or event. Jiang and Li write, "The answer to bolstering power grids is not just to build more high-voltage transmission lines. It is also important to harden the transmission corridors that already exist so they can withstand extreme weather and be restored more quickly after a disaster."

The federal government also regulates the sharing of grid energy between operators. "Federal standards require transmission providers to have enough electricity available in reserve to serve their own local homes and businesses safely," Jiang and Li explain. "Only excess electricity above that safety threshold can realistically be treated as power available to help neighboring grids during an outage."

Global liquified natural gas shortage pushes countries back to coal

An active coal mine in Indonesia. (Photo by Dominik Vanyi, Unsplash)

Countries are turning back to coal-fired power to fill the energy gap left by liquefied natural gas imports held up by Iran's choke hold on the Strait of Hormuz, The Economist reports.

With nearly a fifth of LNG supplies stuck in the Persian Gulf, countries that rely on LNG imports for electricity generation are scrambling to find a substitute. "Rich ones are forking out more for whatever LNG they can get their hands on. Some poor ones have shut schools or urged businesses to cut short their work week," The Economist reports. "Everyone is looking for alternatives. Many are eyeing coal."

Despite its declining popularity, coal-fired energy remains part of the global energy mix that some countries are putting back online to replace LNG supplies. "Japan and South Korea have lifted restrictions on older coal-fired power plants, which were being phased out," The Economist reports. "Prices for Australian coal, most of which typically ends up in Asia, have risen three times as fast as those in Europe and five times as fast as in America since the start of the war."

While the coal market is warming up, its progress could be slowed by China and Indonesia, which have active mines that can increase production to counter the LNG shortages.

If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the coal market is likely to see a temporary boom, since demand from major energy importers such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan could push coal prices higher, The Economist reports. 

U.S. grid needs operators to plan now with a blend of energies including batteries, gas and coal

North American Electric Reliability Corporation graph

Fueled by increased demand and shrinking power options, the U.S. electricity grid is headed toward a reliability crisis. "Tens of millions of people face a growing risk of blackouts over the next five years, according to an annual assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal regulators," reports Brad Plumer of The New York Times.

As AI data center builds have continued to demand more grid power, many "utilities are retiring older coal- and gas-burning plants and aren’t adding enough generation to dependably meet growing demand," Plumer explains. The report lists regions in Texas, the upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Pacific Northwest as most "at risk of electricity shortfalls."

How electricity is produced is at the heart of electricity reliability and a contentious point of national political debate. "President Trump has said that policies to fight climate change and promote wind and solar energy have weakened the reliability of electric grids, since wind turbines and solar panels can’t run at all hours," Plumer writes. But renewable energy advocates say that "Trump administration efforts to hinder wind and solar projects are depriving the grid of a fast-growing source of power."

Battery build-outs can help regional power operators create a more resilient grid that can meet demand even during extreme heat or cold snaps. "In MISO, a grid spanning 15 states in the Midwest and South, more than one-third of coal plants are set to retire by 2030," Plumer reports. "But the grid operator recently instituted a plan to speed up the connection of new gas plants and batteries over the next five years."

The report offers a list of recommendations for operators to start planning now, including "speeding up permitting processes for new power plants and transmission lines, and policies to ensure that large new sources of demand, such as data centers, don’t overwhelm the grid," Plumer adds. "It also suggests that utilities and grid operators should be careful about shutting down older coal and gas plants too quickly."

Wind farm projects are 'teetering on the brink,' despite soaring electricity demand

Wind power is being blown over by opposition from local residents, who don't like the look of turbines, and the Trump administration, which ended federal tax credits and has worked to stall federal permitting approvals. Without robust growth in wind power, experts are doubtful the U.S. will be able to meet future electricity demand.

In states that were once turbine-friendly, "new wind project developments are teetering on the brink, despite growing power demand," report Dan Gearino and Anika Jane Beamer of Inside Climate News. "Even Iowa, the nation’s most wind-powered state, is 'closed for business,' experts say."

Graph by Paul Horn, ICN, from Energy Information 
Administration data 

Although the Trump administration's resistance to offshore wind farms may be more familiar to Americans, the administration's weakening of land-based or 'onshore' wind development will have a much larger impact on the nation's power grid. Gearino and Beamer write, "In 2024, the most recent full year for which data is available, wind energy produced 7.7% of the nation’s electricity, more than any other renewable source."

Atin Jain, an energy analyst for the research firm BloombergNEF, told ICN, "U.S. onshore wind is in its weakest shape in about a decade, not because the technology has stopped being competitive, but because the policy and, to an extent, the macro-environment have turned sharply against it."

During the early to mid-2010s, many Iowa landowners and local governments welcomed wind farm developments and the significant revenue they generated. Opposition from residents was sporadic and generally ineffective, but "in the late 2010s, something changed," Gearino and Beamer explain. "In both Iowa and nationwide, wind energy projects began to face local opposition that was more aggressive and better organized than before."

The era of growth in Iowa’s wind industry "is almost certainly nearing its end," ICN reports. "The resistance comes almost entirely from the local level. . . . Roughly 58 of Iowa’s 99 counties now have rules designed to limit wind power development, including many of the counties with the strongest wind resources."

Cooling off from summer sizzle will cost nearly 4% more this year

A hose may be the cheapest way to cool off
this summer. (Photo by J. Tyson, Unsplash)

Summer sun and heat might be good for beachgoers, but climbing summer temperatures will mean spiking power bills for U.S. consumers. Reasons for ballooning energy costs include higher natural gas prices, grid upgrade costs passed on to utility customers and increased domestic demand.

"Electricity prices across the country have increased 4.5% in the past year, topping the 2.2% jump in the price of groceries," reports Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal. "Consumer prices rose 2.4% in May from a year earlier."

Whether U.S. consumers flip on fans or crank the air, most will pay roughly 4% more "because of a jump in natural gas prices, the largest source of power generation," Hiller explains. "Natural gas deliveries to power plants will cost about 50% more from June through September than last year."

That's painful. "The higher bills are putting a strain on the wallets of consumers who are already stretched thin by rising costs for food, shelter and insurance," Hiller writes. "The average household power bill will reach $784 for the combined period from June to September."

Many Americans started the summer months already behind on their electrical bills. "Mark Wolfe, the executive director at the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said one of every six U.S. households is behind on their electricity or natural gas bills," Hiller reports. "Customers owed gas and electric utilities more than $24 billion in late payments as of March."

Despite the pinch consumers are bound to feel, several utility companies are asking regulators to approve rate increases. "In Florida, NextEra Energy’s Florida Power & Light is asking regulators to let it increase rates between 1% and 5% a year through 2029," Hiller adds. "About $9.3 billion in additional electricity costs will begin trickling down to customers in the PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest grid operator and wholesale electricity market."

In some markets, AI data centers are "stressing the grid." In other places, increased demand is partially driven by electric vehicles. "Across the U.S., the growing pains are sparking fights over how to pay for upgrades and costs," Hiller reports. "The power industry also warns that a rollback of the clean-energy tax credits offered under the Inflation Reduction Act would push electricity prices higher, too."

The physical presence of modern technology encroaches over farmland and behind homes

Power lines for Virginia data center may reach across 
Maryland farmland. (Photo by Gary Meulemans, Unsplash)

As the desire for "more" pushes technology to grow and advance, so does the need for electricity to supply its physical growth.

Institutions and businesses used to have their own data centers, but in the past 15 years they began using third parties to house them and warehouses (or computer hotels) followed in quick succession, said Jon Hukill, spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition, according to Stephanie Hanes.

Hanes explored the impact that data centers and their electricity needs are having on communities and farmers in Maryland and Virginia, in an article for The Christian Science Monitor. These data centers are now bumping up to residential areas and the power lines to supply them are proposed to come from New Jersey, through Maryland farms, to the centers in Virginia.

“The industrial scale of data centers makes them largely incompatible with residential uses… And industry trends make future residential impacts more likely,” said Mark Gribbin, chief legislative analyst for Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Hanes said Gribbin's research found that a third of data centers were now located near homes.

The concerns of the residents affected vary, but they are worrying. Brent Hunsinger, a local river steward, expressed his fears to Hanes, “With data centers, the effects are more distributed…There’s water; there’s the electricity demand, also the transmission lines.” 

Winter is almost here and many states have power grids unprepared for extreme weather, new report warns

Dusk in rural Maine. The state faced rolling power outages last
December. (Photo by Andrew Dickinson, The Washington Post)

Winter is coming and many states have power grids unprepared to handle the cold. Their possible failure leaves thousands of residents vulnerable to dangerous outages. "The nation's power grid faces a sharp risk of buckling in the event of major storms or prolonged cold snaps this coming winter, according to the regulator that monitors the electricity system," reports Evan Halper of The Washington Post. 

While the deadly 2021 grid failures in Texas may come to mind, swaths of the country face a similar threat. Halper writes: "A sweeping portion of the country that extends from Texas to the Canadian border is not adequately equipped for tough winter conditions, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned. . . . The report is a sobering assessment of a power grid that continues to fray and suffer from underinvestment, despite promises by politicians and regulators to shore it up following deadly blackouts in recent years."

Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents 900 local electricity providers, told the Post, "This forecast again shows that our nation faces looming grid reliability challenges while demand for electricity continues to soar. That's unacceptable and should be cause for concern for all Americans."

During stretches of sustained cold, natural gas generation is a weak link "as power plants and the infrastructure that delivers fuel to them are destabilized by the strain of extreme cold," Halper reports. 

While many states have been working to repair and prepare their systems, Texas has not been able to work fast enough. The reports showed "more power generation is at higher risk of energy shortages this winter than last because it is not bringing enough new power online to meet the state's surging demand, and its existing infrastructure has not been adequately weatherized," Halper adds. "New England meanwhile is struggling with its own natural gas infrastructure issues that create a threat in that region, the report found. And in a number of Mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, the demand for electricity at peak times has increased, while the amount of power available 'has changed little in these areas since Winter Storm Elliott caused energy emergencies across the area,' the report found."

As states move from traditional energy to renewables such as solar and wind, their impact also influences grid integrity. "Some, including Matheson's group, argued the report exposes the risks of tough new emissions rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which they say will further destabilize the system," Halper reports. "But others point to considerable research that finds the proposal does not threaten reliability and could ultimately strengthen the grid by more quickly bringing to market new technologies to store wind and solar power, which can be delivered to the grid when traditional power plants fail."

Vermont utility has a faster, cheaper way to protect consumers against outages during extreme weather

Green Mountain Power proposed installing batteries like this
Tesla battery. (Photo by Caleb Kenna, The New York Times)

In the ongoing balancing act between electrical grids and extreme weather preparation, Vermont's Green Mountain Power is asking state regulators to "let it buy batteries it will install at customers' homes, saying doing so will be cheaper than putting up more power lines," reports Ivan Penn of The New York Times. "The plan is a big departure from how U.S. utilities normally do business. Most make money by building and operating power lines that deliver electricity from natural gas power plants or wind and solar farms to homes and businesses. Green Mountain — a relatively small utility serving 270,000 homes and businesses — would still use that infrastructure but build less by investing in television-size batteries that homeowners usually buy on their own."

This past year, severe storms, flooding and power outages have pushed Green Mountain to change its business model in favor of a cheaper, quicker solution. "As the company ran the numbers, it realized that paying recovery costs and building more power lines to improve its system would cost a lot more and take a lot longer than equipping homes with batteries," Penn writes. "Green Mountain's plan builds on a program it has run since 2015 to lease Tesla home batteries to customers. Its filing asks the Vermont Public Utility Commission to authorize it to initially spend $280 million to strengthen its grid and buy batteries, which will come from various manufacturers."

Green Mountain's chief executive, Mari McClure, told Penn, "We don't want the power to be off for our customers ever. People's lives are on the line. That is ultimately at the heart of why we're doing what we're trying to do." The company will still control the batteries "allowing it to program them to soak up energy when wind turbines and solar panels were producing a lot of it. Then, when demand peaked on a hot summer day, say, the batteries could release electricity."

Part of the problem with big energy projects is how long they take to complete. Penn reports, "Green Mountain's proposal seems to recognize that reality, said Leah Stokes, an associate professor of environmental politics at the University of California. Stokes told Penn: "It really is the model, especially if you're worried about power outages. It really could become the example for the rest of the country."

The public vs. private power battle revives as some Mainers, sick of poor service and reliability, push for a takeover

A worker inspects a Central Maine Power electricity corridor.
(Photo by Robert F. Bukaty, AP via The American Prospect)

In the 1930s and 1940s, one of the greatest political battles at the state level was between investor-owned utilities and public power, which had as its best allies member-owned rural electric cooperatives. Now, the battle has been rejoined as customers of investor-owned utilities in one of the most rural states try to make them public. "Investor-owned utilities are hardly known for being adored by the public," reports Lee Harris of The American Prospect. "Even so, Maine has two of the least popular in the Northeast. For the past two years, Maine's two privately owned utilities, Versant Power and Central Maine Power, have ranked last in a customer satisfaction survey evaluating utilities' performance in the Eastern United States." (Of note, the ratings for rural electric cooperatives are dominated by large co-ops near cities, suggesting that data on smaller co-ops was too limited to rank them.)

Mainer voters will get to weigh in on a "ballot initiative up in November, backed by Mainers who are fed up with that status quo, aims to take back the monopoly privileges granted to those private utilities and convert them into Pine Tree Power, a nonprofit authority that an independent board would run," Lee writes. "Backers say it would improve reliability and bring down rates. They argue this is a critical time to take back public control of utilities, as Maine embarks on a mass electrification drive that will transform its energy system. . . . Opponents, including some Democrats and utility workers, are skeptical that the authority can deliver the savings it promises, and worry about the risks involved in overthrowing incumbent utilities."

Buying a private electric utility is complicated; however, some communities have succeeded. "Winter Park, Florida, formed a public power utility in 2005, after 69 percent of residents voted in favor of the plan. Since then, it has laid the majority of its electric lines underground, strengthening storm resiliency," Lee explains. "But other cities have struggled to pull off similar de-privatization. Boulder, Colorado, recently gave up on its decade-long struggle to take over its private utility. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, vetoed a similar utility buyout plan in 2021, after the legislature approved a bill that would have taken the proposal to Maine voters."

Enmax and Avangrid have "poured millions into a campaign to prevent Pine Tree Power's proposed takeover," Lee writes. The initiative also faces union resistance. "Workers' biggest concern is that the PTP initiative would cause them to be classified as public employees, potentially weakening the union. Since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Janus, public employees have not been required to pay dues to unions representing them, even when the union bargains on their behalf."

You'll pay less for power, but 25% more than pre-pandemic

Bureau of Labor Statistics graph via The Wall Street Journal

In a welcome about-face, Americans can look forward to lower electric bills in the coming months, reports Bob Henderson of The Wall Street Journal. "A slide in prices for natural gas and coal—which together fuel about 60% of U.S. power production—has only begun feeding through to ratepayers, according to some Wall Street analysts. Retail rates typically lag behind fuel costs by six to nine months, partly because utilities often protect against price swings by buying in advance, Goldman Sachs economist Spencer Hill found in a recent research note."

Cheaper fuels will reduce "average electricity prices by 3-4% from their peaks by fall, Hill's modeling suggests. . . . National electricity rates were already sliding early in the year but rebounded in June after a Southwestern heat wave," Henderson writes. Despite the decrease in prices, "Americans now pay an average of nearly 25% more for power than they did before the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

Drastic weather could change the predicted decrease. Henderson adds, "Temperatures typically peak in late July, and the outlook for August is in line with 10-year averages, said meteorologist Matt Rogers. The pattern means the worst of this summer's heat is likely over, though he still sees a possibility of roving hot spots and power price spikes in places such as Texas, the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest."

"The country's ongoing renewable energy build-out might weigh on electricity rates beyond Goldman's estimates. Solar-power production this summer will be 23% higher than last year, estimates the Energy Information Administration," Henderson reports. But even with the hoped decrease, some people will keep their thermostats up. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jeff Heller, of Canyon Lake, Texas, "keeps his upstairs thermostat set to 84 degrees in summer." He told Henderson, "If it drops by 20%, I might be inclined to drop it by another degree."

Grid manager's review does not recommend more security for electric substations, says 'Cost was a major concern'

A string of attacks with at least two involving gunfire occurred at substations and other
power facilities last year. (Map by Claudine Hellmuth, Energy & Environment News)

Despite last year's electric-substation shootings and discussion focusing on the power grid it manages, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. is not recommending additional security measures at electric substations, reports Robert Zullo of States Newsroom. Zullo notes that the corporation's CEO, Jim Robb, "told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that cost was a major concern. 'We're not recommending a common minimum level of physical security protections at this time,' Robb said, adding that NERC was aware of the vulnerability of substations and other electric transmission infrastructure, particularly in remote areas. 'Physical security hardening of substations can be extraordinarily expensive. . . . It's important that the risk abated is commensurate with the capital required.'"

FERC ordered the national grid manager to do the review last year, after gunfire attacks on substations in North Carolina, Ohio, the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere, the commission tasked NERC with reviewing existing rules, which only currently apply to electric infrastructure, that, if knocked out, would pose a hazard to the broader bulk power system," Zullo writes. "The current regulation, known as the CIP-014 Reliability Standard, came into being in 2014 after a sniper attack on a California substation. [The standard seeks to prevent] the successive loss of elements on the electric system that results in widespread service interruption. . . . Many substations, like the ones targeted in Moore County, N.C., don't meet that threshold, but damaging them can still result in a loss of power for thousands."

"NERC also didn't recommend extending the applicability criteria under the existing regulations to other, less crucial substations, finding that the rule 'appropriately focuses limited industry resources on risks to the reliable operation of the (bulk power system) associated with physical security incidents at the most critical facilities," Zullo reports. "The review found that the language in the requirements should be 'refined' so that owners of substations that meet the threshold for the security standards conduct effective risk assessments."

FERC Chairman Willie Phillips told Zullo, "There is no greater priority for me and for this commission than making sure that we protect the security of our electric grid." A NERC spokeswoman "said that while the commission cannot create a security standard or tell NERC how to write one, 'They do have the authority to order us to establish a new standard or modify an existing one.' . . . . Robb added that NERC sets baseline standards and that utilities, working with their regulators, can 'invest in additional protections."

TransWest Express line approved, clearing way for largest onshore U.S. wind farm; power will travel across four states

Map of planned transmission line route via BasinAndRangeWatch.org; for a larger version, click on it.

"After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, a 732-mile transmission line capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to Western states got a green light last week," reports Gabriela Aoun Angueira of Grist. "The Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line. The infrastructure project will deliver three gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project to grids in Arizona, Nevada, and California. That's enough energy to power about 2 million homes."

Eighteen years is a long wait. "Projects built on federal lands are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, which dictates the environmental review process. NEPA does not include time limits for when environmental reviews must be completed," Angueira explains. "The TransWest Express crosses four states, through both public and private lands, and required approvals from various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, as well as some determined property owners."Speeding the NEPA process is another process. "While there is bipartisan support for permitting reforms [to NEPA] that could speed up or consolidate the number of decision-makers, substantive changes have not yet materialized," Angueira reports. Jeremy Firestone, an expert on wind energy at the University of Delaware, told her, "If we are going to do this transition, we need to be open and transparent and provide good information about the environmental and social effects and the positive attributes of these projects as well, like the fact that they're going to replace fossil fuel generation."

"The TransWest Express could be particularly impactful for California, which has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045," Angueira writes. "In a 2021 report, the state said it would have to triple its grid capacity by 2045. . . . Adding transmission capacity of this scale will be essential to converting the nation to completely carbon-free power sources. . . . Construction on the TransWest Express will start this year. . . . TransWest Express said it expects to complete the project by 2028."

Substations beware: 'Accelerationists' see power grid attacks as way to create chaos, end contemporary society

Photo from TPM via Getty Images

If all forces result from interactions, the cross-mix of technology and capitalism has supporters and haters. Hunter Walker describes one of the latter in Talking Points Memo: "The first chapter of the black-and-white PDF magazine begins with an ominous warning. Over four dense pages, the anonymous writers paint a picture of 'an anti-tech revolution, beginning with the annihilation of the U.S. energy grid,'"  "'Hospitals would fail. . . the collapse of the system. . . . chaos, agony, and death.' . . . Along with a depiction of a widespread blackout, it included a precise list of the locations of 'The Most Critically Important Electric Substations in the U.S.'"

Walker writes, "This apocalyptic brand of extremist rhetoric — and the focus, specifically, on targeting substations — is part of a growing phenomenon . . . . Experts have attributed the wave to the digital spread of right-wing accelerationist ideology, which aims to hasten societal collapse. . . . It is easy to dismiss these writings as digital bluster, but law enforcement and academic experts have repeatedly attributed the frightening online rhetoric to the real-world rise in assaults on power stations."

Over the past 10 years, the pairing of anti-capitalism ideologies with an actionable plan has evolved. "The electric grid has increasingly come into the crosshairs since an April 2013 sniper attack on a Pacific Gas and Electric substation in Metcalf, California," Walker reports. "Since then, the idea of shooting attacks on the power grid has gained traction. . . . The proliferation of extremist materials online is a challenge for law enforcement. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there are over 79,000 substations that play a vital part in the nation's electrical grid. Many are in remote locations and are privately owned, which means they have varying standards for security."

"Relatively simple shooting attacks from far-right white supremacist terrorists have emerged as a major threat to the grid," Walker writes. "Thirteen individuals associated with the white supremacist movement faced federal charges related to 'planning attacks on the energy sector' between 2016 and 2022, according to a report from the George Washington University Program on Extremism. . . There is a consensus among federal law enforcement agencies that white supremacists have become the top domestic terror threat."

Michael Edison Hayden, spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, told Walker, "Thinking about how the power lines function. . . it is the central nervous system of contemporary society, and that's why it's so important to accelerationists. . . . As they see it ... the system that is oppressing them cannot function … without power. . . . Things around gender and sexuality right now are animating extremists on the right more than race. . . . That reverberates from the White House when Trump was there all the way down to accelerationist cells." Walker adds, "White supremacists are not the only adherents of accelerationism. There are anarchists and some on the far left who could be described as accelerationists."

Supreme Court sharply limits EPA's ability to regulate CO2 from power plants, saying Congress didn't authorize it

Coal-fired plant in Winfield, W.Va. (Bloomberg photo by Luke Sharrett)

"The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply cut back the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce the carbon output of existing power plants, a blow to the nation’s chances of averting catastrophic climate change," report Robert Barnes and Dino Grandoni of The Washington Post.

Ruling in a lawsuit filed by the State of West Virginia, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority, “Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day. But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme.”

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “The Court appoints itself — instead of Congress or the expert agency — the decisionmaker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.” The Post notes, "The court was considering the powers granted by the Clean Air Act, which was written decades ago, before climate change was widely recognized as a worldwide crisis."

 
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, another major coal state, said in a statement that EPA issued the greenhouse-gas regulations “without any clear congressional authorization” and the court “confirmed that only the people’s representatives in Congress — not unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats — may write our nation’s laws.”

The regulations never took effect, because the Supreme Court blocked them, but EPA's "emission-reduction goals were met ahead of schedule because of economic conditions that made coal-fired plants more expensive," the Post reports. "The administration and environmentalists were stunned when the Supreme Court took the case" from West Virginia, because the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had ruled that a more lenient Trump administration plan intentionally misread the law. "As a result, the Trump rules were struck, the Obama rules were not reinstated and the Biden administration has yet to formulate its plan," the Post reports.

Quick hits: Rural entrepreneurs well-placed to be climate leaders; Kansas faces dire foster-parent shortage

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

Much of rural Kansas has so few foster parents that the loss of just one can leave a huge hole in a county, reports Kansas City's KCUR.

How to prepare for, and react to, storms that knock out your electricity, from The Daily Yonder.

The last line of the paid obituary for a man who was a major paper-company executive in Idaho reads: "The best tribute you can give to Lee [Gill] is to pick up a piece of trash." His funeral is today.

The Guardian digs up a 1977 climate memo to Jimmy Carter "that should have changed the world."

Through simple measures, rural entrepreneurs can become climate leaders, says the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs. Read more here.

Thursday AgriPulse webinar will explore how beefing up the electrical grid can help rural economic development

Agri-Pulse will host a free, one-hour webinar at 11 a.m. ET Thursday, April 7, to explore how investing in the national electricity grid can create more rural jobs, "in addition to improved electricity affordability, reliability and sustainability," the Washington, D.C., newsletter says.

Agri-Pulse founder and editor Sara Wyant will moderate a panel of experts, including:

• Agriculture Department Undersecretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small
• Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla.
• Rural Utilities Service Administrator Chris McLean
• Rob Gramlich, executive director, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (sponsor of the webinar)
• Denise Bode, a partner with lobbyist consulting firm Michael Best Strategies LLC

Click here for more information or to register.

Misinformation stalling rural renewable energy projects

Anti-wind turbine sign in the front yard of a farmhouse in Glenville,
Minn., in January 2018 (Associated Press photo by Charlie Neibergall)

Climate experts worldwide say it's critical to shift away from fossil fuels to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. But in the U.S. and abroad, dozens of grassroots efforts oppose utility-scale wind and solar projects. "Researchers say that in many groups, misinformation is raising doubts about renewable energy and slowing or derailing projects," Julia Simon reports for NPR.

Such opposition could slow efforts to wean the nation's electrical grids off fossil fuels, especially since 60 percent of electricity in the U.S. still comes from carbon-based fuels. "For the Biden administration to hit its target of an electricity sector free of fossil fuels by 2035, the country has to double or triple the wind and solar power capacity it installs over the next few years and maintain that higher level of deployments for about a decade," Simon reports. "Yet every single rural utility-scale wind and solar project needs local or state approval to get built, says Sarah Mills, who researches rural renewable energy at the University of Michigan. And she says it's in those often-fractious discussions about approval that misinformation is sometimes halting and stalling the installation of the renewables the climate needs.

"At the end of the day, if local governments are not setting rules that allow for the infrastructure to be sited, those policies cannot be achieved," Mills told Simon.

Regulations on rural utility-scale solar and wind projects are determined at the local level in about half of U.S. states. So local opposition groups, many flooded with misinformation, can have an outsized impact. "These local officials are not necessarily experts in energy," Mills told Simon. "And so when you have people coming and stating things as facts, especially if there's nobody fact-checking everything, right, it's difficult. They're certainly making decisions based on what they're hearing."

Some popular misinformation about renewable energy comes from former President Donald Trump, who frequently repeats false and misleading anti-wind claims. Groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry are another source, such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Simon reports. And anti-renewable lawmakers can drive suspicion as well as bar rural utility-scale projects. Several states have proposed bills to restrict them this year, including Washington, Iowa and Kansas.

Facebook is one of the biggest sources of misleading content, according to University of Minnesota Duluth researcher Josh Fergen. He and colleagues published a paper last year examining two citizen-led groups that opposed local wind projects. The paper found that posts in the groups' Facebook pages amped up fears about health and safety with lopsided coverage of disasters and frequent posts with false or misleading claims, many of which Facebook had not tagged with warnings. At least one of the projects was rejected, partly because of local opposition.

An Energy Department spokesperson said they're trying to do more local outreach to combat misinformation about utility-scale renewable energy projects, but Dahvi Wilson, spokesperson for renewable energy developer Apex Clean Energy, said the company is finding local engagement increasingly difficult nationwide because so many people are already suspicious about renewable energy, Simon reports.

"I think for a long time, and maybe still in some places, developers thought, 'Well, we just need to give better information. We just need to give more information.' And it's like, 'It's so not about that at all!'" Wilson told Simon. "It's about who you trust, and if anybody's going to believe you if you're a company."

Coal giant Peabody touts big solar project in Illinois Basin

Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal producer, but it announced last week it's launching a renewable energy company called R3 Renewables. In the announcement, the company "touted its financial backing and 'extensive' land holdings, and said it would start with development of six sites on or near old coal mines in Indiana and Illinois," the Illinois Basin coalfield, Bryce Gray reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The move may be startling, since the St. Louis-based company has long been a staunch defender of the coal industry, but analysts say it makes sense.

"Old coal mines offer the land and available space that’s critical for renewable energy projects. And they’re already wired for heavy electrical use, with built-in access to the wider power grid, which could make it far cheaper to rewire them for solar. And grid access is so important some renewable energy developers value it even over especially sunny or windy sites," Gray notes. "Additionally, repurposing existing mines might provide Peabody with a way to alter reclamation obligations — hefty costs tied to the restoration of land after mines close down. Keeping the land in use, albeit for a different purpose, might change when and how the bills come due."

Peabody and other coal companies have faced increasing financial pressure in the U.S. in recent years as demand for thermal coal shifts toward Asia, and have acted accordingly. In 2016 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in 2019 it merged its Powder River Basin operations with rival Arch Resources, then called Arch Coal. Arch made the name change in 2020 when it pivoted toward metallurgical coal. "Amid the switch, Arch’s leaders spoke very clearly about the vanishing future for thermal coal" use to generate electricity, Gray reports.

Peabody remains focused on thermal coal; its website address icon is "BTU" in a blue block. One analyst speculated that major Peabody creditor and investor Riverstone Credit Partners may be behind the company's move. Riverstone not only has experience developing renewable energy projects, but also has the financial wherewithal to shepherd large-scale projects, Gray reports.

And the scale is striking: "Over the next five years, R3 aims to develop more than 3.3 gigawatts of solar power and 1.6 gigawatts of battery storage capacity at the sites in Indiana and Illinois," Gray reports. "That’s about three times the existing solar generation in the two states combined . . . and nine times their storage capacity."

The nation's electric grid is becoming less reliable as its sources change; see where your state gets its power

Power production by source, by state. (Wall Street Journal map; click the image to enlarge it.)

Age and climate change are driving the nation's power grid to become less reliable even as Americans become more dependent on it in an increasingly digital world.

"Large, sustained outages have occurred with increasing frequency in the U.S. over the past two decades, according to a Wall Street Journal review of federal data. In 2000, there were fewer than two dozen major disruptions, the data shows. In 2020, the number surpassed 180," Katherine Blunt reports for The Wall Street Journal. "Utility customers on average experienced just over eight hours of power interruptions in 2020, more than double the amount in 2013, when the government began tracking outage lengths. The data doesn’t include 2021, but those numbers are certain to follow the trend after a freak freeze in Texas, a major hurricane in New Orleans, wildfires in California and a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest left millions in the dark for days."

Meanwhile, "the grid is undergoing the largest transformation in its history. In many parts of the U.S., utilities are no longer the dominant producers of electricity following the creation of a patchwork of regional wholesale markets in which suppliers compete to build power plants and sell their output at the lowest price," Blunt reports. "Within the past decade, natural gas-fired plants began displacing pricier coal-fired and nuclear generators as fracking unlocked cheap gas supplies. Since then, wind and solar technologies have become increasingly cost-competitive and now rival coal, nuclear and, in some places, gas-fired plants."

Some experts worry that the transition could cause old power plants to "retire more quickly than they can be replaced, creating new strain on the grid at a time when other factors are converging to weaken it," Blunt reports.

Aging power lines are also a concern, with 70% nearing their expected 50-year lifespan, according to a 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers report. "Utilities across the country are ramping up spending on line maintenance and upgrades. Still, the ASCE report anticipates that by 2029, the U.S. will face a gap of about $200 billion in funding to strengthen the grid and meet renewable energy goals," Blunt reports.

Bitcoin miners power their operations with old coal-fired power plants in New York, raising environmental concerns

"In just a few years, a swath of northern and western New York has become one of the biggest Bitcoin producers in the country," Corey Kilgannon reports for The New York Times. "The prospectors in this digital gold rush need lots of cheap electricity to run thousands of energy-guzzling computer rigs. The area — with its cheap hydroelectric power and abundance of shuttered power plants and old factories — was ripe for Bitcoin mining. The abandoned infrastructure, often with existing connections to the power grid, can readily be converted for Bitcoin mining."

"The companies say they are boosting local economies by bringing industry back and creating a crypto vanguard north of New York City," Kilgannon reports. "But the surge of activity has also prompted a growing outcry over the amount of electricity and pollution involved in mining for Bitcoin. Globally, cryptocurrency mining is said to consume more electricity annually than all of Argentina. China, once home to perhaps two-thirds of all crypto mining, banned the practice this year to help achieve its carbon-reduction goals, driving some miners to New York." Read more here.