EnviroPolitics Blog

Fed up with the PJM grid’s rates, member states threaten to pull out

But such a move is likely hollow since it would drive power rates even higher in the short term

The U.S. is home to seven regional transmission organizations and independent system operators that are each responsible for managing power transmission and operating energy markets among utilities in their area. PJM is the largest, serving more than 65 million customers across D.C., Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and 10 other states. And for years, leaders in those states have said it’s not doing a great job.

The crux of the issue is rising electricity prices. This summer, PJM announced a new record in its annual capacity auction, which it uses to secure power resources for the grid. Prices hit $16.1 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2023, Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reported in July.

There are a few reasons for the spike in costs. For one, PJM expects that it will need a ton more power-generation capacity in the coming years as data centers come online — though experts dispute just how big the AI energy-demand bubble will actually be. PJM does have a massive backlog of clean-power and battery projects looking to connect to the grid and meet that demand. But the operator hasn’t undertaken reforms that critics say could speed interconnections, and is instead campaigning to keep expensive, dirty fossil-fuel power plants online.

PJM member states’ longstanding dispute with the grid operator reemerged this week as 11 of their governors met in Philadelphia. There, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin both said they would leave PJM if states don’t get a bigger role in the grid operator’s governance.

“This is a crisis of not having enough power, and it is a crisis in confidence,” Youngkin said. “It’s this crisis that demands real reform, real reform immediately — and at the top of the list is that states must have a real say.”

PJM President and CEO Manu Asthana acknowledged that his organization needs to take cost-cutting steps like improving its load forecasting and interconnection processes, but he also put the onus on states to better their own infrastructure siting and permitting rules.

Washington Analysis researcher Rob Rains is doubtful that states will follow through and depart PJM. He said doing so could actually cost customers more in the short term, as the states may have to negotiate their own power procurement at rates even higher than what PJM has secured. Rains predicts that instead of cutting ties with the grid operator, governors will pull other levers to pressure PJM to establish stronger power-market safeguards to keep prices low.

Meanwhile, analysts at ClearView Energy Partners suggest that states should continue their efforts to develop more electricity generation as soon as possible.

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All Democratic senators oppose EPA ‘endangerment’ chopping

By Lee Ann Anderson, The Hill

In a unanimous decision, the Democratic caucus in the Senate wrote a letter on Monday opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determination that concluded the accumulation of six greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to public health.

The proposal would also repeal regulations for motor vehicles and engines. The determination helped set up the legal basis for U.S. climate policy, according to a press release.

The effort, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), comes after the Trump administration said it’d axe the finding in July.

“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in July.

“We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide, which the finding never assessed independently, were the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods.”

The administration used studies authored and published by scientists who deny the existence of climate change to justify the decision. The scientists behind the studies have been attempting to sow seeds of doubt about climate change within the scientific community for years, according to CNN.

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Trump lectures the world: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People’

In a remarkable United Nations address, the president lashed out at wind turbines and environmentalists while dismissing the dangers of climate change.

President Trump speaks from a lectern in front of several rows of diplomats. — *President Donald Trump at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times*

By Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times

President Trump went on a rant against climate change at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and saying that the scientific consensus on global warming was created by “stupid people.” He also berated countries, including close allies of the United States, for adopting renewable energy.

It added up to an extraordinary diatribe that overlooked the human suffering caused by the heat waves, wildfires, and deadly floods exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels, while simultaneously standing at odds with the rapid expansion of renewable energy worldwide.

He chose his two targets, demonizing immigrants and green energy, and called them a “double-tailed monster” that he claimed, without evidence, are “destroying” Europe. Both subjects play well to his base in the Republican Party. But it was remarkable that he said all this to a global audience.

“You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if you’re going to be great again,” he said. “I worry about Europe, I love the people of Europe. I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration.”

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Trump’s temper could cost Orsted’s offshore wind project $1 billion

By Alex Kuffner, Providence Journal

A federal judge on Monday allowed work to restart on the stalled Revolution Wind offshore wind project after the Trump administration halted it last month.

Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a motion for preliminary injunction of the stop-work order imposed by the Trump administration on the New England project during a high-stakes hearing. The multibillion-dollar offshore wind project is one of the highest-profile renewable energy projects that the administration has sought to suspend while it reviews approvals.

“There is no question in my mind of irreparable harm to the plaintiff,” Lamberth said of the administration’s actions during the hearing.

Lamberth said that if work does not proceed on the project, the “entire enterprise could collapse,” and he pointed to a specialized ship necessary to complete the project that will no longer be available after December.

The project, which is being developed by the Danish wind giant Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables, has argued that the stop-work order is illegal and “reflects a shockingly expansive theory of agency power to undo prior regulatory approvals.” Lawyers for the companies argued that the Interior Department violated the major questions doctrine with the pause.

Revolution Wind has said the stop-work order “will inflict devastating and irreparable harm” on the project. The company has already spent or committed about $5 billion on the project and will incur more than $1 billion in costs if the project is canceled, it said.

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Judge grants new life to Trump-trashed offshore wind project

The Trump administration had halted construction on the $6.2 billion Revolution Wind project, prompting its developer to sue

By Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times

A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Danish energy company Orsted could restart work on Revolution Wind, a large wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is nearly complete but had been abruptly halted last month by the Trump administration.

Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit that the developers of Revolution Wind had filed challenging the Interior Department’s stop-work order. The injunction means that construction can continue while the case moves forward.

“Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” Orsted, which is developing the wind farm in a joint venture with Skyborn Renewables, said in a statement. Orsted added that it would “continue to seek to work collaboratively with the U.S. administration and other stakeholders toward a prompt resolution” of the lawsuit.

The $6.2 billion Revolution Wind project was 80 percent completed when the Interior Department ordered construction to stop on Aug. 29. The developers behind the 65-turbine project had said it was on track to generate enough electricity for more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring.

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New Jerseyans rush to take advantage of expiring solar tax credits

By Briana Vanozzi and Ben Hlac, NJ Spotlight News

Homeowners in New Jersey and beyond are rushing to install solar panels on their rooftops in order to qualify for a federal tax credit that expires at the end of the year.

Congress zeroed out that tax credit, which covers 30% of a new residential solar project, as part of a broader Republican budget law.

The loss of that federal incentive is one of several threats facing the domestic solar industry, as our correspondent in Washington, Ben Hulac, explains. This interview has been excerpted and lightly edited.

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