Rich Nolan believes the Biden administration's EPA standards will be disastrous for the country's energy grid and American energy independence.is attempting to curb U.S. coal mining at the expense of energy security and American independence, pushing energy prices higher as the U.S. power grid is still heavily reliant on coal, natural gas and petroleum, according to an industry expert.
There are over 3,400 fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States, according to the EPA, and in 2022, about 60% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation was produced from fossil fuels, 18% from nuclear and 22% from renewables. "That's going to put stress on grid reliability and the electric grid and drive up prices for consumers and businesses at the very time everyone's reeling from energy-driven inflation and all the stressors in their day-to-day lives," he added.
"We've been working with allies on a bipartisan basis in Congress in the Senate and the House to push back, and certainly we're going to hear a lot when these rules come out from the states, the governors, as well as the attorney generals, as a lot of these issues are going to be battled out in a court of law," Nolan said.
In 2015, the Obama administration was widely criticized over the EPA's Clean Power Plan that experts argued would cost up to $292 billion and potentially raise electricity prices in 47 states and now, Nolan said, the administration's, as it's being called,"could take out another third of the coal fleet" by"forcing states to a position that they don't want to be in related to picking winners and losers in the marketplace.