Fossil fuels are essential, despite renewable energy zealotry

Mark Perry, “… Oil, coal, and natural gas provide the large majority of the nation’s energy, supplying 81 percent of U.S. energy demand in 2020….Rising natural gas prices have shifted energy market share back to coal. Coal generation on the PJM grid, the nation’s largest which extends from Pennsylvania to parts of Illinois, hit a three-year high. Coal generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) rose 37 percent in June and 42 percent in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP)….”

Fossil fuels are essential, despite renewable energy zealotry

Anyone who thinks that the most important environmental task of the next few years is to reduce the use of fossil fuels must take no comfort in recent energy trends.

The Biden Administration – despite its opposition to domestic drilling – is pressuring OPEC to pump more oil and provide price relief at the gas pump. Global natural gas demand and prices are on the rise and coal prices have recently spiked to record levels.

For energy sources that are supposed to be in their decline, fossil fuels remain absolutely essential to our nation’s economy and security. Oil, coal, and natural gas provide the large majority of the nation’s energy, supplying 81 percent of U.S. energy demand in 2020.

No energy source has been more maligned or written off than coal but coal has increasingly provided an essential insurance policy for a sometimes overwhelmed energy grid, not something that should be cast aside.

Coal is currently helping shield the Midwest and other regions from electricity shortages. According to Argus, in June, coal generation on the PJM grid, the nation’s largest which extends from Pennsylvania to parts of Illinois, hit a three-year high. Coal generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) rose 37 percent in June and 42 percent in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).

Rising natural gas prices have shifted energy market share back to coal, with the coal fleet providing an important price shock absorber for the nation’s utilities and their consumers. If more coal plants are pushed into early retirement, that energy balance and fuel flexibility will go with them.

Balance on the energy grid matters as does fuel security. As this past year has demonstrated, with rolling blackouts in California, the near-collapse of the Texas power grid in February, and the threat of capacity shortfalls from the Pacific Northwest all the way to New York, the reliability of the nation’s electricity supply is getting more problematic by the month. While no one fuel source is a cure-all to energy reliability challenges, the months of fuel kept on-site at coal plants is a welcome hedge to the just-in-time fuel delivery at natural gas plants or from wind and solar generation.

Last winter, when bitter cold locked up natural gas infrastructure and wind turbines across the Midwest, it was our coal capacity that came to the rescue – much of it in coal-mining states. It is troubling that the Biden administration fails to grasp the importance of coal and would like to see it disappear in the next few years. If you think there’s a well-designed plan to replace coal and the reliability it provides, think again.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that the vast majority of new power capacity added to the grid this year – nearly 40 gigawatts – will be windmills and solar. Increasing reliance on intermittent renewable power will exacerbate reliability concerns, especially if these additions come in place of the dispatchable power provided by traditional, on-demand sources of generation.

As reliability challenges become more severe across the country, it’s increasingly clear that renewable energy generation additions should come on top of existing coal and natural gas capacity, not in place of it. Pushing more coal capacity and its fuel security off the grid and replacing it with sources of power that are useless at night or when there is no wind is a recipe for a potential catastrophe.

What is critical for our energy future is a reliable and affordable supply of power that doesn’t take a backseat to renewable energy zealotry.

Frequently ignored or overlooked is the fact that fossil fuels remain the nation’s energy lifeblood and will serve as the dominant energy sources to power our vehicles, heat and light our homes, and fuel the growing economy for many decades into the future. Mandating the closure of reliable operating power plants or making it more expensive and difficult to produce the fuels we need in the future is denying reality and putting the American economy at great risk.

Mark Perry, “Fossil fuels are essential, despite renewable energy zealotry.” July 21, 2021, Detroit News, https://www.aei.org/op-eds/fossil-fuels-are-essential-despite-renewable-energy-zealotry/

EIA Staff, “Electricity Explained: Electricity In The United States,” Energy Information Agency, Updated March 18, 2021, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php

To your point natural gas share of generation did gain y/y btw 2019-2020 from38% to 40%clearly it’s displacing the other carbon based electrical sources.

Last year (they note the 2020 numbers are preliminary) so same sources generated61%of the total kilowatthours. I suspect that trend will accelerate given trends in renewables.