President Joe Biden’s approval rating hit a new low in a recent Wall Street Journal survey, with more than half of respondents, 53%, saying they have been personally hurt by the president’s agenda. It does not take a master political strategist to know that a course correction is in order. That should start with an overhaul of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan 2.0.
From the moment he took office, Biden has targeted traditional, abundant sources of U.S. energy. He immediately canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and banned new oil and natural gas leases on federal land, costing good-paying jobs and undermining our energy independence. Now, he is doubling down by taking a page from the Obama administration playbook with his CPP 2.0.
The proposal imposes harsh emissions limits on gas-fired power plants and mandates the use of technology that is not readily available at scale. As a result, some natural gas power plants will be unable to continue operating, forcing American homes and businesses to depend on more intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.
The harmful impact will be twofold. Our energy grid will become less reliable, and our country will become more dependent on China for the critical minerals and rare-earth elements used to manufacture renewable energy components such as solar panels and wind turbines.
Grid operators around the country have raised the alarm on the reliability problems that will ensue if CPP 2.0 is implemented without necessary changes. A group of regional transmission organizations and independent system operators that collectively manage the reliability of electric service to more than 154 million people filed comments with the EPA warning of “an increasing trend of retirements of dispatchable generation, which provides critical attributes that are needed to support the reliable operation of the grid.” They added, “Although each region is working to facilitate a substantial increase in renewable generation, the challenges and risks to grid reliability associated with a diminishing amount of dispatchable generating capacity could be severely exacerbated if the Proposed Rule is adopted.”
At the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’s annual meeting last month, the president and CEO of one of these RTOs echoed the concerns outlined in the comment letter. “This will be a messy transition,” said Manu Asthana of PJM, which serves around 65 million customers in 13 states and Washington, D.C. “New technologies are not ready yet. EPA’s bet is a big bet. We don’t know when these technologies will be mature.”
Simply put, CPP 2.0 will increase the likelihood of more blackouts and brownouts nationwide. As we saw in Texas in 2021, power outages can not only result in staggering economic losses, an estimated $80 billion to $130 billion for that event alone, but more importantly can cost people their lives. That danger is compounded when you consider our nation’s dependence on China for the materials required to build out more wind and solar infrastructure.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee cited Department of Energy data showing that “China’s overall share of the energy minerals processing surpasses OPEC’s share of oil markets in many key areas — from 40% to 100% of key materials and processing.” For example, China alone produces around 80% of the rare earths that are needed for direct drives in wind turbines.
Further, the communist nation has already demonstrated its willingness to use its dominance in the critical minerals supply chain as political leverage. As of this month, China is requiring government approval for exports of graphite, a key material used in electric vehicle batteries. In 2010, China blocked rare-earth exports to Japan for two months over a dispute involving a Chinese fishing vessel.
The original Clean Power Plan was terrible policy when former President Barack Obama proposed it in 2015. It is even more reckless now amid a backdrop of heightened global tensions, intensifying competition with China, and exponential growth in U.S. power demand.
Our economic and geopolitical strength and our domestic security depend on our ability to maintain a safe and stable electric grid. Subjecting our nation’s energy security to the whims of our greatest adversary to appease the hard Left is nothing short of dangerous. The Biden administration must rethink CPP 2.0.
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George David Banks is the former chief Republican strategist for the House Climate Committee. He is also a former energy and environment adviser to President Donald Trump.
