Last week’s heat wave put much of the U.S. electric grid through another serious stress test, with several regions faced with rolling blackouts as electricity demand surged. Fortunately, the grid held, and the worst-case scenario never materialized. This didn’t happen by accident. We have reliable, dispatchable fossil fuel generation to thank for helping keep the lights on and millions of Americans cool during one of the year’s most demanding periods.
Events like last week’s heat wave underscore an important reality: reliability remains the cornerstone of a resilient electric grid. Renewable energy sources continue to play a growing role in America’s energy mix, but periods of extreme heat or cold and prolonged weather events demonstrate the importance of dispatchable generation that can rapidly respond to spikes in demand regardless of the weather or time of day.
My home state of New York offers a telling example. Despite adopting one of the nation’s most aggressive clean energy mandates—with a goal of generating 100% of its electricity from renewable sources in the years ahead—the state’s grid remained heavily dependent on conventional generation during last week’s heat wave. In fact, when I looked at the energy mix last Thursday (while sitting in my sweltering New York City apartment), wind and solar only supplied 4% of electricity while fossil fuels accounted for more than 60% of total generation. The same pattern played out across much of the Mid-Atlantic, where dispatchable fossil fuel generation provided the dependable power needed to meet soaring demand when reliability mattered most.
If these fuels were to be entirely banned, as Albany Democrats want, there would be a total imbalance between what’s needed and what’s supplied. The result would be electricity rationing, even higher prices, and a breakdown of New York’s economy.
Our country will always need fossil fuels for reliable and affordable energy. Many opponents of traditional fuels claim that solar, wind, and batteries can fully replace fossil fuels, but that is, at best, a distant dream. The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, and neither can fully power our grids at a serious commercial scale.
That’s not to say that renewables aren’t worth investing in for the purpose of American energy dominance. With power demands surging due to rising residential demand, factories, and data centers, our country needs more of every type of energy source. Unfortunately, in recent years, Democratic administrations have tried to regulate coal-fired and natural gas generation facilities out of business. It’s estimated that between 2023 and 2028, almost 85 gigawatts of baseload power will be removed from the grid. This is a major reason why electricity bills have risen dramatically in recent years.
Congress can also play a more active role in bringing more reliable energy onto the grid. The biggest solution is to pass comprehensive permitting reform to make it easier to build power plants, transmission lines, and other energy infrastructure. It’s often cited that government red tape is the major roadblock to bringing generation capacity onto the grid. The faster and cheaper it is to comply with government rules, the more affordable it will be for ratepayers.
As policymakers debate the future of the nation’s energy system, they should remember the lesson from last week. Americans expect the lights to turn on every time they flip a switch and their air conditioners to work during the hottest days of the year. Maintaining a reliable energy grid is possible but more work is needed to keep up with rising demand amid rising temperatures.