October 20, 2015 by John Moore, Senior Attorney, The Sustainable FERC Project Written with the assistance of David…
10 Ways the Clean Power Plan Protects Electric Grid Reliability
August 5, 2015EPA’s just-released Clean Power Plan final standards will cut carbon pollution from our nation’s power plants while protecting…
The Grid Will Remain Strong—and Become More Reliable and Resilient—With Carbon-Free Energy
July 31, 2015Carbon-free energy and reliable electric service are like cookies and ice cream; while they’re good on their own,…
FERC June Open Meeting Decisions of Interest
June 23, 2015By Eric DeBellis, NRDC Legal Intern ISO New England, Inc., Docket No. ER15-1137-000 FERC accepted ISO New England’s…
Important Electric Grid Recommendations from the U.S. Department of Energy’s New Report
April 27, 2015By Jennifer Chen, NRDC Alum The Department of Energy (DOE) recently released its first installment of its Quadrennial…
NERC’s Report on Clean Power Plan Deeply Flawed, But the Lights Will Stay On
April 21, 2015An electric power industry organization has issued a new report on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to cut…
A Flexible Plan for Reliable Electric Service and Cleaner Air
March 30, 2015Power plants are responsible for about 40 percent of our country’s carbon dioxide emissions that drive climate change. …
New Report: States Can Cut Carbon Pollution and Protect Grid Reliability
February 14, 2015States can meet or exceed the proposed limits on dangerous carbon pollution from power plants while preserving the…
Wind and Solar Power: Transforming the Grid with Clean Energy – Reliably – Every Day
December 17, 2014Despite years of successful experience, dozens of studies, and increasing utility support for clean energy, urban myth holds…
Positive Developments in the Search for the Holy Grail of Renewable Energy
November 18, 2014Nov 18, 2014 by Steve Dahlke Steve Dahlke is a Policy Associate for the Great Plains Institute. King Arthur…
Which do you like better: Clean Energy & Your Money or PJM’s Proposed Capacity Market Reforms?
November 6, 2014By Jennifer Chen, NRDC Alum In response to last winter’s Polar Vortex, which stressed much of our nation’s…
Environmental Standards Will Help Reduce Consumer Electricity Bills
October 30, 2014The electric power industry is changing, driven by many factors. Leading the way are quintessential marketplace factors like…
CAISO’s Flexible Capacity Proposal Approved by FERC
October 16, 2014By Joe Marren, NRDC Alum The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today largely approved a plan that would…
Great Plains Power Grid Operator Sowing Confusion about the Clean Power Plan
October 9, 2014This post was updated following the public release of the study. The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power…
Lower Power Prices Likely This Winter, Even With Another Polar Vortex
September 4, 2014[symple_box color=”green” text_align=”left” width=”100%” float=”none”] Last winter’s extreme cold weather, coupled with flaws in the power markets, drove…
Court Upholds FERC Order 1000: Major Victory for Clean Energy and Consumers
August 15, 2014Terrific news! A federal court today upheld in its entirety the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) groundbreaking electric…
Congratulations Commissioners LaFleur and Bay!
July 15, 2014The U.S. Senate today approved President Obama’s nominations of Cheryl LaFleur and Norman Bay as commissioners of the…
Building NTAs into Power System Plans, Engaging Customers, and Evaluating Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards
June 24, 2014By Sonia Aggarwal, Eric Gimon, and the experts of America’s Power Plan This post originally appeared here, and…
Nation’s Largest Electricity Market Has Enough Power Through (at least) 2018
May 27, 2014By Stacey Steep, Legal Fellow with the Sierra Club This month, PJM, the largest grid operator in the country,…
Court Deals Setback to Cleaner Electric Transmission Grid
May 25, 2014May 25, 2014 by John Moore and Allison Clements A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has handed…
The Polar Vortex and the Power Grid: What really happened and why the grid will remain reliable without soon-to-retire coal plants
April 29, 2014Apr 29, 2014 by John Moore and Allison Clements In the grip of the “Polar Vortex,” much of…
Grid Planning for Extreme Weather Events
April 29, 2014Many of the nation’s major high power electric transmission owners have formed entities called regional transmission organizations (RTOs)…
Order 1000 Has Its Day in Court
March 21, 2014The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an important set of reforms intended to save consumers money and…
Nation’s Largest Grid Operator: Huge Renewables Expansion Won’t Be a Problem
March 10, 2014PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest power transmission grid organization, announced last week that wind and solar power could…
Looking to Reduce CO2 Emissions 40% from the Power Plant Sector?
March 4, 2014By Mike Jacobs, Senior Energy Analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Climate & Energy Program Power grid…
A Reminder of the Need to Get More Clean Power onto the Electric Grid
February 10, 2014A cold Sunday morning in Washington, DC isn’t when you would expect to find hundreds of utility regulators…
Polar Vortex Shows We Need More Efficiency, Wind, and Solar, Not Coal or Gas
February 5, 2014By Mark Kresowik, Eastern Region Deputy Director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign The East Coast was…
We Can Have Both a Reliable Grid and a Cleaner Environment
December 9, 2013Opponents of power plant pollution control standards waved the red herring of grid reliability at a congressional hearing…
Building a Clean Energy Future: Transmission Is One Piece of the Puzzle
December 3, 2013By Seth Kaplan, Vice President for Policy and Climate Advocacy at the Conservation Law Foundation Dealing with the…
New Standards Ease Barriers for Rooftop Solar and Other “Distributed” Power Systems
November 22, 2013Today a federal agency issued new and better standards for connecting rooftop solar, wind, energy storage, and other…
The Good, the Hopeful and the Ugly: Clean Energy in America and New England in the Fall of 2013
September 30, 2013Sep 25, 2013 by Seth Kaplan, Vice President for Policy and Climate Advocacy at the Conservation Law Foundation. First,…
Integrating Renewable Energy Resources into the Grid
September 23, 2013The amount of electricity produced with renewable energy, especially wind and solar power, is growing rapidly in the…
Policy Blueprint for a Renewable Energy Future: America’s Power Plan
September 19, 2013By Carl Zichella, NRDC Alum There is a deep irony at work in the intersection of energy and…