Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday that a major study of the power grid he is overseeing is meant to push back the political goals set out by the Obama administration and ensure electric grid reliability isn’t “tossed aside in favor of some political favorites.”
“I recognize markets have had a role in the evolution of our energy mix, but no reasonable person can deny the thumb, or even the whole hand, if you will, has been put on the scale in favor of certain political outcomes,” Perry said, while addressing the Energy Information Administration’s annual two-day conference in Washington.
The solar and wind industry fear that Perry’s report will shoot down the growing role of renewable energy in supplying the nation’s power, in support of more conventional electricity supplies from coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants.
The Natural Resources Defense Council on Monday issued its own counter grid study conducted by the Brattle Group consulting group. The counter study showed how the grid is advancing past ideas of what constitutes the “baseload,” or 24-hour-a-day stable power supply, in favor of a more flexible system that can easily adopt more renewable energy.
He said it is “not reasonable to rely exclusively on fossil fuels. It’s not feasible to rely exclusively on renewables.” Perry said “politically driven policies, driven primarily by a hostility to coal, threatened the reliability and the stability of the greatest electrical grid in the world.”
Perry was interrupted twice by protesters who chanted the comments Perry made earlier this month on CNBC that carbon dioxide was not to blame for global warming.
He replied to the demonstrators that they were part of what he called the “100 percenters,” referring to those that believe renewable energy can make up 100 percent of the U.S. power grid. “I think it is OK for us to ask questions, for us to be skeptical of information,” Perry added.
The grid study was slated to be released this week, but Perry pushed back the release to July.
