The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently unveiled a revised edition of the Obama-era “Clean Power Plan” that was previously rejected by the Supreme Court. This updated version has raised concerns about its potential impact on our nation’s power infrastructure and our reliance on China for supplies. It seems that the Biden administration is willing to sacrifice America’s energy independence, which is one of our greatest advantages.
On the other hand, Virginia is taking a different approach. As our economy grows and our power needs increase, we are leading with an innovative and comprehensive energy plan called the All-American, All-of-the-Above Energy Plan. Our goal is to deliver reliable, affordable, and clean power. Unlike liberal activists who want to impose arbitrary timelines for power plant retirements, our Virginia Plan embraces a wide range of innovative technologies. These include small modular reactors, carbon capture, hydrogen, and advanced battery storage. We believe in utilizing all fuel sources, including both traditional and renewable, to increase baseload generation and peaking capacity while further reducing emissions from existing capacity.
While we embrace these innovative technologies, we also understand the importance of affordability for families and local businesses. This is why, on day one, I initiated the process to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is essentially a regressive tax that has failed to achieve its intended pollution reduction goals and has only burdened the people of our state with increased costs. Recently, Virginia’s Air Board voted to withdraw from the cap-and-trade initiative, a move that has been criticized by liberals who unjustifiably blame our decision for wildfires in Canada.
The Biden administration’s proposed plan once again demonstrates its inability to plan for long-term energy needs and its lack of preparedness to implement the regulations it proposes. The plan sets unrealistic timelines based on carbon-reducing technologies that are not yet commercially viable. Additionally, there is no strategy in place to address China’s dominance of the critical minerals supply chain, nor any plans to deploy the necessary transmission infrastructure. The retirement of thermal-baseload generators is already outpacing planned renewable investments, leading to a significant gap between power supply and demand, especially for reliable, baseload-generating capacity.
As the governor of a state in the PJM Interconnection regional-transmission organization, I am particularly concerned about the retirement of 40 gigawatts of thermal generating capacity by 2030, with only 31 gigawatts of new capacity planned to come online. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. has also warned about the rapid retirement of traditional generation sources in the country. Despite these concerns, the Biden administration is pushing forward with this detrimental regulation, prioritizing short-term political gains over responsible long-term power planning.
In Virginia, this mismatch is even more pronounced. While our neighboring states expect a 1% increase in power demand annually, Virginia’s rapidly growing technology and advanced manufacturing sectors require five times the growth in generation supply. Our regulated utilities understand the flawed demand forecasting and misguided retirement approach mandated by the previous Democrat-controlled General Assembly and administration. It is evident that Virginia needs new natural gas plants to meet our energy needs.
We cannot overlook the lessons of events like Winter Storm Elliot, where fossil fuel plants slated for retirement under the Biden proposal were crucial in keeping the lights on. Common sense must prevail in energy planning. The Biden team’s efforts to hasten the transition to renewables within an unrealistic timeframe are flawed. An All-American, All-of-the-Above Plan should certainly utilize innovative technologies, but we must not ignore the challenges and limitations of renewables at present. American families and businesses are already burdened by the consequences of this administration’s irresponsible energy plan, and this proposed regulation only highlights their disregard for an affordable and reliable power future.
The Biden administration must abandon this proposal and the long-lasting damage it would cause to America’s energy and power future. Instead, they should engage in a meaningful dialogue with states and the public to develop an energy plan that addresses the complexities and realities of our current energy landscape, which they have thus far neglected.
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