Texas is leading a coalition of 19 states challenging federal agencies that require states to implement a “green energy” transition.
States have filed complaints with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in opposition to rules passed to advance unprecedented federal control over the U.S. power grid.
Currently, state regulators determine the most efficient mix of energy sources for their state.
FERC’s new rule appears to be an unfunded mandate, requiring states to implement “green energy” generation and pay for the costs of the transition to it.
Texas, which maintains its own power grid, led a coalition of 19 states in the lawsuit.
The company argues that FERC’s rules exceed its authority, are arbitrary and capricious, and create “unfair, unreasonable, and/or excessively discriminatory rates” that violate the Federal Power Act.
The 48-page report said the rule was “not supported by rational decision-making or explanation and is at odds with the evidence.”
“FERC is attempting to indirectly do what it cannot do directly: by adopting planning rules designed to benefit remote renewable generation and renewable energy developers, it is seeking to strip states of their exclusive authority over generation selection and shift billions or even trillions of dollars in transmission costs from these developers to electricity consumers,” the coalition argues.
The coalition includes the following states: Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.
At issue is FERC’s May 13, 2024 Order No. 1920, which states that “there is sufficient evidence to support a conclusion that the Commission’s existing transmission planning and cost allocation requirements are unfair, unreasonable, overly discriminatory, or preferential because they do not require transmission utilities to: (1) conduct a sufficiently long-term assessment of transmission needs that identifies long-term transmission needs; (2) take appropriate forward-looking consideration of known determinants of long-term transmission needs; and (3) consider the broader benefits of the regional transmission facilities planned to meet those long-term transmission needs.”
The order requires states to cover the costs of transitioning local transmission lines to support “green energy” generation, even if it doesn’t meet the state’s energy needs and makes the grid less efficient and reliable, the coalition argues.
In Texas, for example, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the regulator that oversees the state’s power grid, has repeatedly noted that wind and solar power cannot meet energy demand but natural gas can.
As temperatures hovered around 120 degrees Fahrenheit for months last year, ERCOT issued voluntary energy conservation requests while also releasing data showing low wind power output was not enough to provide enough energy.
Texas ranks fifth in wind power generation in the world and leads the United States in generating wind energy.
Recognizing the need for a reliable, less intermittent energy source, the Texas Legislature and a majority of voters approved a plan to invest $5 billion in building out primarily natural gas infrastructure to increase the reliability of the Texas energy grid.
State officials said they have received an “overwhelming response” to the new program.
By contrast, Texas received zero bids in a federal offshore auction for roughly 200,000 acres of wind leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nonetheless, the Biden administration is again attempting to auction a second round of offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Texas Bureau of Land Management opposes such an effort, arguing that it would not grant any rights to use state-owned submerged lands to build onshore transmission lines and that it would not be in the interest of Texas.
“The Biden Administration seems hell-bent on forcing its failed ‘green’ policies on the American people,” GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said, adding of Texas-produced natural gas, “We will never allow the federal government to put Texans and our state’s beautiful wildlife at risk with untested, unproven and ineffective technology when reliable, clean and safe energy is already available.”
Texas leads the U.S. in natural gas production, and Texas and Louisiana lead the U.S. in liquefied natural gas exports, according to a report from The Center Square.
“FERC does not have the authority to reform states’ electric grid structures or to force states and their ratepayers to subsidize large transmission lines that do not transport enough power to justify their costs. This infringement of states’ authority goes far beyond FERC’s limited powers and undermines states’ ability to effectively regulate their electric grids in the name of advancing costly climate goals,” the 19-state coalition argues.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the president’s “attempt to exert unprecedented control over energy production and delivery is a recipe for disaster.”
State attorneys general joined together “to stop the illegal ‘energy transition’ plan that would drive up energy costs and make the resource we most need to thrive less reliable.”
They did so after former Louisiana Attorney General and now Governor Jeff Landry led a coalition of state governors to “unlock domestic energy production.”
“The U.S. energy industry has done more to lift people out of poverty around the world than any other industry that I know of,” Landry said.
