11 May 2023
Testifying before the US Senate Energy Committee, all four FERC Commissioners express concern with the current pace of coal-fired power plant retirements and its growing threat to grid reliability.
FERC Chairman Phillips: "I am extremely concerned".
FERC Commissioner Danly: "The results I fear are going to be catastrophic".Last year, hydrocarbon-fueled power plants in the U.S. generated 2,518 terawatt-hours of energy, which was about 59 percent of all the juice produced in the country. (Coal plants produced about 829 terawatt-hours and gas-fired generators produced 1,689 terawatt-hours.)
If we take 90 percent of the 2,518 terawatt-hours produced from coal and gas plants, we get 2,266 terawatt-hours of electricity per year.
As can be seen in the graphic above, the 2,266 terawatt-hours of energy that we generate from hydrocarbons every year is more than 10 times the amount of juice now being produced by all of the solar panels in the country.It’s also more than five times more than what’s being produced by wind turbines, and nearly three times more than what’s being generated by all of our nuclear plants.
The EPA’s proposed rule hinges on the dubious claim that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is ready for prime time.
