Mark Christie, a top power grid regulator, is deeply concerned that the Biden administration’s aggressive power plant regulations will severely diminish energy reliability, he wrote in a letter to lawmakers this week.
Christie, who serves as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), warned that the power plant rules finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April could be “catastrophic” for the U.S. if they come into effect, according to his letter to three Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The EPA’s regulations, which have been challenged in court by Republican state attorneys general and a top utility trade group, will require existing coal plants to install carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to capture 90% of their emissions by 2032 if they want to stay operate beyond 2039, and certain new natural gas plants will also have to slash their emissions by 90% by 2032.