Iced Over: America May Learn Its Power Grid Is Frozen In Time

November 19, 2024

A recent report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warns that hundreds of millions of Americans are at risk of experiencing power shortages this winter. Residents across the Northeast, Texas, and Midwest are vulnerable to energy shortages due to growing energy demand and too much reliance on renewable energy sources.

The Daily Caller reports, 

“The lack of grid reliability is driven largely by growing electricity demand as well as the replacement of coal-fired and older natural gas-fired generators with energy-limited resources such as solar power. “’Foreseeable extreme cold temperatures have the potential to push the existing natural gas supply infrastructure to maximum capacity,” the report warns. “Serving winter load is becoming more challenging and complex as coal-fired and older natural gas-fired generators retire and are replaced by variable and energy-limited resources.”

American families should never have a problem accessing reliable and affordable heat, especially when our country is blessed with abundant natural resources.

“The expansion of power-hungry data centers has led to a surge in electricity demand, according to the NERC study, with consulting firm Bain projecting utilities could have to increase their annual power generation by as much as 26% by 2028. Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has sought to reduce natural gas and coal-fired power generation, finalizing a rule in April requiring that existing coal plants use carbon capture and storage to control 90% of their carbon emissions by 2032 if they want to stay running past 2039, and that certain new natural gas plants cut their emissions 90% by 2032, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”

The NERC report is nothing new. For the last few years, NERC has continually sounded the alarm on grid reliability. However, the current administration has chosen to ignore these warnings, and Americans will feel the pain this winter with sky-high prices and potentially deadly situations.