The Great Reset: Biden’s EPA Modifies Expensive Renewable Energy Plant Strategy to Guard Against Legal Objections

The Environmental Protection Agency is revising its green power plant initiatives, amidst expert warnings about high implementation costs and threats to grid reliability.

By yourNEWS Media Staff

In an effort to address climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making strategic adjustments to its plan to greenify America’s power plants. These modifications come in the face of potential legal challenges and concerns about the impact on the nation’s power grid’s reliability. Experts have voiced that while the EPA’s adjustments might make the regulations more resilient to legal scrutiny, they could still pose significant expenses and jeopardize grid reliability. This situation is particularly precarious as it unfolds against a backdrop where a change in presidential administration could lead to the regulation’s repeal, especially with the possibility of Donald Trump returning to office in January 2025, according to Bloomberg.

Isaac Orr, a policy fellow specializing in power grid analysis at the Center for the American Experiment, critically assessed the EPA’s move as primarily defensive, aimed at circumventing grid reliability issues while transitioning from coal to natural gas. Orr told the DCNF, “I can confidently say that this is the EPA going into CYA mode on grid reliability. They are hoping that natural gas can fill in the gaps left by the retiring coal facilities and sidestep the obvious reliability problems that stem from those closures. The problem is the limits on new gas will make this more difficult to build and operate enough natural gas plants to keep the lights on.” Orr’s and the Center for the American Experiment’s analysis in August 2023 forecasted that the EPA’s regulation would likely lead to supply adequacy issues and blackouts across the vast Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region.

Marlo Lewis Jr., a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, echoed Orr’s sentiments, pointing out the challenges posed by the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas guidelines for existing natural gas power plants. Lewis remarked to the DCNF, “The greenhouse gas guidelines EPA proposed in May 2023 for existing baseload natural gas power plants are infeasible and unaffordable. Many—perhaps most—owners of baseload natural gas power plants will choose to shut down the plants rather than install 90% carbon capture and storage by 2035, or ‘co-fire’ with 96 percent low-greenhouse gas hydrogen by 2035.” He further noted that the EPA is likely delaying the finalization of these guidelines until 2025 to avoid political backlash ahead of the November elections.

Critics have described the EPA’s proposal as effectively a workaround to achieve similar outcomes to the Obama administration’s “Clean Power Plan,” which the Supreme Court nullified in West Virginia v. EPA for exceeding the agency’s authority. This ruling came eight years after the regulation’s introduction in 2014 by the Obama-era EPA.

As of now, the EPA has not issued a response to these concerns and critiques.