COLUMBUS, OH — Energy consumers need more action from legislators to ensure Ohio and Pennsylvania have reliable, responsive electric grids that prioritize their needs, a sentiment reflected in yesterday's Joint Hearing on energy grid reliability between Ohio and Pennsylvania legislators in Pittsburgh.
“The Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund appreciates the continued interest of Ohio’s leaders around ensuring a reliable electric system in our region,” Nolan Rutschilling, Managing Director of Energy Policy at the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund, said. “We urge Ohio’s leaders concerned about reliability to not let fossil fuel companies deceive them with misleading talking points that erroneously blame clean energy. Ohio’s grid reliability would greatly benefit from reduced siting challenges to quickly build and site renewables as well as battery backup systems and robust energy efficiency programs. Ohio’s leaders should keep working to pass crucial energy efficiency programs while taking advantage of the historic amount of funding available for their communities to implement clean energy solutions, including the enormous potential energy storage technology.”
“Clean energy should not be used as a scapegoat in any conversation about grid reliability. Instead, conversations should focus more intentionally on the ongoing renewable energy siting challenges and PJM queue delays our region faces. Furthermore, the failure of natural gas and coal plants in extreme weather should not be ignored, as illustrated in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) report around Winter Storm Elliot. The report indicates nearly half of all plant failures during the storm took place at gas-fired generation facilities,” Rutschilling explained. “In fact, the report calls for Congress and state legislatures to establish reliability rules for natural gas infrastructure to prevent future disasters. The report from the federal agency that regulates gas and sets standards for electric reliability indicates that natural gas is missing the mark in times of extreme weather. Rhetoric blaming clean energy for reliability concerns is misguided disinformation that obscures natural gas’ role in failing to keep Ohioans’ homes heated and lights on during extreme weather events."
“Thanks to President Biden's Clean Energy Plan, investments in domestic clean energy manufacturing and supply-chain, and new funding for grid resilience and reliability, Pennsylvania now has the resources necessary to enhance our power grids to deploy clean energy technology in every corner of the commonwealth,” Katie Blume, Political & Legislative Director, at Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, said. “However, anti-environmental legislators in Harrisburg have lagged behind in utilizing available funding for clean energy deployment. Senator Yaw, the chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee, has repeatedly cast doubt on our power grids ability to incorporate clean energy sources. Senator Yaw has also used public forums to prop up fossil fuel executives and industry lobbyists who continue to lie about transmission improvements to the power grid.”
“With funding from the Biden-Harris Administration, we have a chance to address the legacy of pollution environmental justice communities have faced, lower energy costs for Pennsylvania families, and create thousands of good-paying union jobs,” Blume said. "These investments will improve Pennsylvania's power grid reliability and put these false notions of clean energy unreliability to rest.”
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