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Wright defends DOE emergency orders to keep coal plants online as lawmakers press reliability risks
Summary
Secretary Wright told the Energy subcommittee he used statutory authority to order baseload plants to remain online under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act; members disputed the costs and called for clearer coordination with grid operators and FERC.
Secretary Chris Wright told House Energy and Commerce members that the Department of Energy used its statutory authority under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to direct operators to keep certain baseload power plants running to protect regional reliability, citing concerns about tight reserve margins in parts of the grid.
Wright said, "I made those decisions," when asked who authorized the orders to keep two plants open beyond planned retirements. He described the decision as a response to actual reliability threats and told members that within days of preserving a plant in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator footprint there was a blackout in a related area, underlining the department's argument that the orders were necessary to avoid broader outages.
Republicans and Democrats raised questions about cost and process. Members said they were concerned that utilities may seek to pass consumer charges for keeping plants online; state utility chairs warned that the moves could add tens of millions of dollars to bills. Representative Haley Stevens inserted newspaper articles into the record describing projected rate impacts.
Committee members also pressed DOE on its broader approach to transmission and interregional planning. Members described transmission permitting and the interconnection queue as bottlenecks that slow the arrival of new capacity; lawmakers asked whether DOE would support bipartisan permitting and reforms at FERC to prioritize interregional transfer capacity. Wright said he would support efforts to build more transmission and to reform permitting and interconnection processes.
Wright and multiple members agreed on the need to increase the supply of dispatchable, firm electricity to meet rising demand from data centers and reshoring of manufacturing. Several members urged a bipartisan approach to policy changes to provide investment certainty and to avoid punitive costs to customers in regions that must keep plants running while new capacity is built.
Ending: Members said they will continue oversight on the orders' costs and asked DOE to coordinate with FERC, regional operators and states to manage costs and replacement capacity; DOE said it would provide further information on the orders and the rationale for invoking §202(c).
