FERC Costs Consumers Billions, Hobbles Clean Energy Economy, to Help Coal and Fracked Gas Execs

WASHINGTON, D.C.  - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) instituted a disastrous new rule today that will essentially exclude new renewable energy resources from the PJM capacity market -- a split decision that energy experts predict will cost the Midwest, Appalachia, and Mid-Atlantic regions almost $6 billion annually and increase dangerous fossil fuel emissions. 

The new rule -- known as the Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR) -- will require new renewable resources required under ambitious state climate policies to offer into PJM’s capacity market at artificially elevated prices. At these prices, renewable energy resources will be unable to displace more expensive aging coal and unnecessary new fracked gas resources from the market. The MOPR will essentially nullify most state incentives for clean energy resources and require consumers to buy fossil-fuel capacity that they neither want nor need. 

In response, Mary Anne Hitt, Senior Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement: 

“FERC has just hobbled the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest’s clean energy economies, undermined the ability of states to regulate electricity generation within their own borders, and dramatically increased the cost of electricity and how much pollution is in our environment. The exclusionary Minimum Offer Price Rule will punish clean energy generation and result in more pollution just to help coal and fracked gas executives, all while costing consumers an estimated almost $6 billion a year.    

“FERC’s decision doesn’t solve any problems, it creates more of them, and will likely lead to an exodus of states from the PJM capacity market for good. We will challenge this decision and do everything we can to throw this unfair and illegal rule out to ensure an affordable clean energy future.”