Okay, this opinion piece by @SecBrouillette is so full of errors I am afraid to even try to point out all of them. So here is the deal: I'll try and you can tell me which ones I miss... Thread 🚨🚨🚨 1/x
@SecBrouillette starts w/ suggesting coal is “rock solid” and renewables aren’t reliable. A lot to unpack here. 1) coal plant reliability (both forced and unforced outage rates) has been on the incline. Coal is actually getting less reliable with each passing year. 2/
The Secretary points to the 2019 Polar Vortex as an indication of coal’s reliability but ironically in the 2018 Polar Vortex, the only reliability issues stemmed from coal plants and the coal supply chain. See this NERC report: nerc.com/pa/rrm/January… 3/
2) Renewables are reliable. While coal becomes less reliable with each passing year, renewables become more reliable. Grid operators are learning new ways to accommodate higher levels of renewables with each passing year. 4/
Lessons learned by vanguard states (CA, HI, et. al) get exported to the next group of states. DOE knows this b/c they help facilitate those cross-pollinations. DOE Sec. also says that the grid can't run on just wind or just solar. What a horrible straw man. 5/
Nobody is saying 100% wind or 100% solar. Wind and solar are complementary. So while running a grid on just one would be nearly impossible (or at least very expensive) running the grid on a suite of resources is far better. 6/
We've known this for a while. It was 5 years ago that I helped write a paper on the subject. The emerging ideas in the paper are now SOP by most grid operators. synapse-energy.com/sites/default/… 7/
Secretary Brouillette goes on to suggest that Pennsylvanians should be grateful that coal was around to provide electricity to serve the increased demand at hospitals during the COVID crisis. This is one of the most cringe-worthy parts of his argument 8/
Mr. Brouillette fails to mention that coal generation in the region has fallen nearly 50 percent compared to previous years thanks to REDUCED overall demand. He also fails to note that the pollution from those coal plants makes you and me more susceptible to COVID-19 mortality 9/
Pollution from Pennsylvania coal plants is so bad that neighboring states, including Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Connecticut are in violation of air quality standards due to pollution directly tied Pennsylvania coal plants. 10/
The Secretary continues to prop up antiquated thinking about how are grid works and should be operated. While not explicitly using the word "baseload" he definitely implies we need coal as a baseload resource. The one problem: COAL ISN'T BASELOAD! 11/ blog.ucsusa.org/joseph-daniel/….
With each passing year, there are fewer hours where just the financial costs make coal plant operations pencil out. Running these plants makes even less sense when you consider the very real public health costs from air pollution. 12/
It is those very financial pressures that are why coal plants in the region are not able to operate economically today. The Secretary’s solution? Make the owners of those coal plants install expensive retrofits that will make expensive power even more expensive. 13/
Southern Company tried that in Mississippi, with the Kemper plant that was supposed to be a coal plant with carbon capture technology. $8 billion dollars and over a decade later, the plant has not burned any coal and has not captured any carbon. 14/
Mississippi ratepayers are still on the hook for the tab of the failed Kemper Coal CCUS and now SoCo wants to try gas and CCUS (funded in part by DOE) but that's a tangent for another day. eenews.net/stories/106344… 15/
We don’t need our federal leaders to promise us tomorrow’s coal plants. We need them to stop with the hypocrisy of championing emissions reductions while at the same time actively working to erase safeguards that achieved them. 16/
Secretary Brouillette's arguments manage to be both incredibly disingenuous and incredibly misleading. It’s profoundly disappointing and deeply frustrating to see yet another government official mislead the public about our health, safety, and basic economics. 17/
Real leadership would recognize the tangible contributions of our coal miners and plant workers in helping keep the lights on—and tell the truth that our future will be different from our rich history. 18/
Real leadership is fighting for a fair transition for workers and families, giving them a fighting chance to be a part of the clean energy economy. Heck, there are probably more jobs to be had in the clean energy economy anyways. 19/19 fin.
