America Can’t Afford To Keep Ignoring Blackout Costs

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Sweltering heat on the East Coast tested the resiliency of America’s largest power grid over the 4th of July holiday, just days after a federal court recently upheld a Biden-era EPA rule that will make it more difficult to operate the reliable coal and natural gas plants America relies on to keep the lights on.

Margins are already tight, as America’s grid watchdog, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), warns that half of America could be on the brink of rolling blackouts by 2030. (RELATED: America’s Energy Dominance: The Fruit Of Freedom On Our 250th)

We find ourselves on the brink of an unreliable power grid because, for too long, lawmakers and regulators have had policy tunnel vision, obsessing over the externality costs of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, while entirely ignoring the economic damage posed by the growing risk of power outages. The result was regulations designed to force coal plant retirements, limit new natural gas generation and promote an overreliance on the use of wind, solar and battery storage to meet our energy needs. (RELATED: Europeans Discover Simple Luxury As They Descend On US For World Cup)

This path is simply unsustainable, and it requires a serious rethink of our current regulatory process. If........

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