January 8, 2018: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decisively shut the door on one of the worst ideas of 2017 – the Department of Energy’s notice of proposed rulemaking that would have offered enormous, unwarranted subsidies to any generator that stores 90 days of fuel on-site (read: coal and nuclear plants). Rick Perry’s proposed Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule was a blatant attempt to prop up coal and nuclear generation that would otherwise retire as a result of cheaper, cleaner and more flexible generation coming online. The Sierra Club Environmental Law Program submitted extensive technical comments and reply comments on the proposed rule, along with Earthjustice, NRDC, and EDF, among other environmental and consumer advocacy groups. These comments laid out the case that there is no resilience crisis, that coal and nuclear generators are inflexible and prone to extended shutdowns, that renewable energy and demand response contribute enormously to grid reliability, and that the cost of DOE’s proposal would have been staggering. Sierra Club has also worked continuously to expose excessive fossil fuel industry influence at DOE through FOIA requests for communications between DOE and fossil fuel companies.
Read ELP Senior Attorney Casey Robert's blog here.