Press Releases

As the U.S. Congress continues to deliberate on a reconciliation package to deliver to President Trump’s desk ahead of July 4, Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) penned an op-ed on the package’s benefits for America’s electric grid. 

Read his full op-ed in the Washington Examiner here or below.

The intense heat wave battering the United States pushes America’s electric grid to the brink and threatens potential power outages. But House Republicans offer a policy change that bolsters our grid and helps protect Americans from blackout threats.

Communities across much of the country face scorching temperatures, prompting power companies to take notice and act accordingly.

In my part of Virginia, local power companies affiliated with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are encouraging their customers to reduce electricity use. This request appears to be based on an announcement from the TVA.

Alerts of potential breaking points in America’s electric grid are not unique to the TVA and are unfortunately becoming more and more frequent. 

The Friday before Memorial Day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency order directing the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the Midwest grid operator, to keep a coal-fired power plant in Michigan in operation. These emergency actions are authorized for up to 90 days at a time under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act.

Wright issued the order to minimize the risk of blackouts ahead of the high electricity demand expected this summer.

MISO runs North to South from Manitoba and Michigan down to Louisiana and a portion of East Texas. 

Notwithstanding keeping the plant in Michigan open, the New Orleans metro area suffered a large and unexpected power outage during Memorial Day weekend. At the blackout’s peak, more than 100,000 customers lost electricity.

According to news website Axios, utilities knew high demand was likely that weekend. However, they had no extra power capacity. When one plant went down, their customers were plunged into darkness.

Reports confirmed that two of the region’s nuclear power plants lost connection to the grid. One was due to expected maintenance, while the other was unexpected. Constrained by a lack of energy supply, grid operators cut power to customers in New Orleans.

Entergy, an electric utility company in the region, said that the forced outages directed by MISO were done to prevent a larger scale and more prolonged power outage from impacting the electric grid.

This blackout was not the only major power outage in recent memory.

On April 28, Portugal and Spain witnessed the worst blackout in their history, affecting 55 million people, per British newspaper The Guardian.

Airports shut down, cars drove on streets without traffic lights, hospitals resorted to backup generators and some people were stuck in elevators!

The Iberian Peninsula blackout continues to be investigated. Lots of finger-pointing is going on between Spain’s grid operator, the government and plant operators. But it is interesting to note that on April 16, Spain reported its first weekday where its national power grid was 100% reliant on renewable power.

A coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Coincidentally, in a recent Virginia Tech press release, professor and Power and Energy Center director Dr. Ali Mehrizi-Sani highlighted how the systems that control these clean energy sources are more susceptible to blackouts.

As parts of the world transition to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the lack of seamless grid adaptation to the use of these sources, as illustrated by the blackout in Spain and Portugal and by experts like Dr. Mehrizi-Sani, threatens destabilization of electric grids and more blackouts.

Leftist policies that attempted to gut our grid’s reliance on fossil fuels and convert to renewables have pushed America’s electric grid to the brink.

Federal policies, like the Obama-era “War on Coal” and the Biden Administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), shunning reliable baseload forms of energy like coal and natural gas have made our electric grid more vulnerable to failure.  

But House Republicans offer a potential policy change that levels the playing field and openly welcomes baseload power.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act curtails some IRA tax credits which disincentivize coal and natural gas power plants. We maintain the incentives for nuclear because of its significant potential for baseload power.

Republicans also create an energy project insurance pool to help protect energy investors from permits being revoked for coal, oil, critical minerals, natural gas or nuclear installations.

This de-risking compensation fund will make it harder for federal policies to discourage and phase out these reliable energy sources.

As extreme summer heat continues to threaten potential power outages, we must secure and equip our electric grid with reliable energy solutions.

We do not need to follow in Spain’s footsteps and make Iberian Peninsula-style blackouts the norm.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act helps Americans avoid blackout threats by instituting reliable forms of baseload power. 

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