ACORE Statement on Reports of Planned Order to U.S. Grid Operators

 Statement by Gregory Wetstone, President & Chief Executive Officer, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)

Washington, D.C. – “The Trump administration is apparently contemplating direct intervention in the electricity marketplace to bailout coal and nuclear power plants that are no longer competitive on their own. Suggestions of a threat to electric sector reliability or resilience as a result of power plant retirements have been consistently refuted by leading experts, including in the Department of Energy’s own grid study, at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in major transmission organizations like PJM. At the end of the day, the transparent guise of a national security emergency does not pass the red-face test as a justification for this action, or the increase it will cause in electricity costs for American consumers and businesses.

Arbitrary market interventions of this sort have no place in the electricity structure that has kept American electric power reliable and affordable. The sad irony is that such steps deprive businesses of the certainty needed to make much-needed investments in power generation — undermining the reliability of America’s electricity infrastructure, which is the very concern this ill-conceived measure claims to address.”

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About ACORE:
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is a national non-profit organization that unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. Founded in 2001, ACORE is the focal point for collaborative advocacy across the renewable energy sector, supported by hundreds of members spanning renewable energy technologies and constituencies. Every year, ACORE convenes top business leaders and policymakers at its annual forums on finance, policy and grid technology in New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. For more information about ACORE, please visit www.acore.org and follow @ACORE on Twitter.

Media Contact:
Gil Jenkins
Vice President of Communications
jenkins@acore.org | 202.777.7584