States must take a critical eye to gas plants proposed over clean energy
Utility Dive · Hudson Kingston; Will Scott ·
The key question for regulators is no longer whether utilities can simply find a reason to install another gas turbine, write experts from Environmental Defense Fund and Minnesota’s CURE.
Will Scott is the North Carolina policy director of the Environmental Defense Fund. Hudson Kingston is the legal director at CURE, a nonprofit rural environmental and energy democracy organization in Minnesota.
The data center boom has become a cash cow for investor-owned utilities across the country. Many utility companies are seeking approval for costly new gas plants and other fossil fuel infrastructure based on uncertain projections of future demand for data centers and other large customers. If those projections fall short, ratepayers are left with 30 years of payments for projects that are increasingly expensive to build and slow to develop. We can’t let phantom projections for new data centers leave regular ratepayers with the bill.
Historically, state regulators have given utilities significant latitude to pursue new generation. Yet, as heating and cooling bills become painfully unaffordable for families and local businesses, utility regulators are increasingly skeptical of proposals that could leave them paying for decades of dirty and expensive fossil fuel infrastructure, when clean, renewable energy and batteries provide a reliable, homegrown and affordable alternative. Indeed, a recent study found that batteries are now cheaper than gas peaker plants, globally.
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