Data collected over the past 20 years shows an increase of 12% in utility capital spending, rising from $287 billion in 2003 to $320 billion in 2023. Spending on generation has declined, while spending on transmission and especially distribution has surged and more than made up for declines in cheap generation, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The sector spends 24% less on producing electricity than it did in 2003 due to lower fuel costs and the closure of older power plants that were costly to maintain. But spending on generation jumped 23%, or $4.7 billion, from 2022 to 2023 due to one project coming online — Southern Co.’s Vogtle nuclear plant expansion, which started commercial operation in April.
Spending on transmission nearly tripled over the two decades, hitting $27.7 billion in 2023, with some of the increase coming from transmission station equipment ($1 billion), poles ($1.1 billion) and computer software ($400 million) needed for operating regional transmission markets.
The distribution system was the main driver for overall increases in the utility sector as capital investments in that level of infrastructure were up by $31.4 billion, or 160%.
More than 20% of the increase in distribution spending happened between 2022 and 2023, when utilities spent $6.5 billion more for a total of $50.9 billion to replace and upgrade aging equipment and install new distribution infrastructure to help neighborhood grids withstand extreme weather and manage renewable intermittency.
The biggest categories for distribution system spending were on overhead lines, poles and towers as utilities spent $17.4 billion on overheard infrastructure in 2023. That marks an 11% increase from a year earlier, and 220% more than in 2003.
Spending on underground lines also ramped up significantly over the past 20 years to reach $11.8 billion in 2023. It was for new developments, as well as undergrounding old lines to mitigate power outages from storms and wildfires or improve neighborhood appearance.
Supply chain and manufacturing issues led to utilities spending 23% more for a total of $7.5 billion in 2023 on “line transformers,” which drop voltage to household levels.
Utilities spent $6.1 billion on distribution substations in 2023, which marks a 184% increase from 2003 and 15% from 2022. More substations allow utilities to better withstand extreme weather, manage renewable intermittency and allow for greater voltage control during emergencies.
Another major increase was spending on infrastructure located on or near customers’ property, which includes meters, leased property and rooftop solar. Utilities spent $5.1 billion on that in 2023, up 84% from 2003 and up 25% from 2022.
Although energy storage remains a relatively small portion of the total budget for distribution infrastructure, spending increased from $97 million in 2022 to $723 million in 2023. Energy storage at the substation or customer site enhances power quality and provides backup power in areas where lines and transformers cannot handle additional capacity, especially as more intermittent renewable resources come online.
The “other” spending category increased by 30% or $8.6 billion over the 20 years. It includes intangible plant expenses like licenses and general plant expenses like office space and storage buildings.
Stakeholders are split on whether FERC should adopt more changes to its generator interconnection rules or focus on implementing Order 2023 while letting specific regions go further on their own (AD24-9).
After issuing the order in July 2023 and working on grid operators’ compliance filings for nearly a year, FERC held a technical conference in September looking into how to further speed up processing the country’s interconnection queues, which according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory include about 11,600 projects totaling 2,600 GW. (See FERC Workshop Examines How to Speed up Interconnection Queues.)
In post-conference comments, submitted last week ahead of a Nov. 14 deadline, a group of “public interest organizations” — including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center and Sustainable FERC Project — urged FERC to ensure that Order 2023 is fully implemented and to focus on future reforms that complement it.
“Transmission providers’ obstinate, superficial compliance filings and continued litigation against Order No. 2023 underscore the need for the commission to only entertain proposals that would build on — rather than detract from — the reforms of Order No. 2023,” they said.
They argued FERC should make improvements to surplus interconnection service and energy resource interconnection service (ERIS), which allow new resources to connect to the grid with fewer guarantees for delivery when the system is constrained. The services are not evenly implemented in organized markets, they said, and in some cases, ERIS interconnection costs can exceed network resource interconnection service (NRIS), which is intended to guarantee firmer connectivity.
“The commission should reject proposals that run counter to open access by allowing new interconnection requests to queue jump: passing on additional uncertainty, delays and unfavorable cost allocations to interconnection customers that have already struggled to maintain viability in extensive queue backlogs and now rely on the Order No. 2023 cluster process,” the groups said.
Advanced Energy United, the American Clean Power Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association did not warn FERC away from queue jumping entirely, but they cautioned against making that change permanent. Such Band-Aid approaches should be sunset by the end of the decade, they argued.
“Queue caps and prioritization processes may make models solvable but are likely to prove challenging to design and implement without undermining open-access principles,” the clean energy trade groups said. “Further, inequitable and inconsistent stopgap measures may limit development and ultimately harm reliability. The commission must not lose track of the fact that open access is good for consumers; it reduces costs and drives innovation. This is equally, if not more, true in times of rapid change — like today — as in times of relative stability.”
The high number of projects is logical and necessary to ensure healthy competition to serve new load, but high queue volumes were cited by other parties as the main problem that needed to be solved with caps and prioritization, the groups said. High project volumes are an issue only if they are a result of a faulty process.
“A Band-Aid can be a stopgap solution — but if surgery is what’s needed, it should be prepped for, scheduled and performed as soon as possible, even if the Band-Aid is helping to temporarily address symptoms in the meantime,” they said.
Region-specific Proposals
The Edison Electric Institute said FERC should focus on implementing Order 2023 but also let regions that propose revisions to their own processes to move forward with those.
“Given the reliability concerns in some regions, EEI believes that the commission should be open to regions proposing reasonable mechanisms to prioritize the interconnection of certain resources to ensure continued reliable energy supplies,” the investor-owned utility trade group said. “Finally, EEI recommends targeted reforms rather than generic action to further integrate the transmission and interconnection processes.”
New generic, nationally applicable processes risk disrupting ongoing compliance processes, consume significant time and financial resources, and could delay the goals advanced by Order 2023, EEI said.
American Electric Power called on FERC to ensure ISOs and RTOs have effective, nondiscriminatory processes in place to prioritize or fast track interconnection requests for replacing retiring generation and new capacity needed to meet reliability or resource adequacy requirements. Shovel-ready projects that support reliability, need only existing transmission to connect and support state policies should be prioritized.
Constellation Energy said FERC should adopt a new method that speeds up the queue, noting that PJM has talked about 2030 as being the year when reliability will come to a head.
“Accelerating the pace of new entry of reliable resources is critical to solving this problem,” Constellation said. “To do so, Constellation and PJM have proposed stopgap frameworks that would prioritize shovel-ready interconnection requests that address demonstrated resource adequacy or reliability needs.”
This “Expedited Reliability Process” would have the RTO establish objective criteria to determine whether a project is likely to satisfy the region’s reliability needs and whether it can be constructed on time to meet them. The proposal should be filed with FERC in December, the firm said.
MISO told FERC it is facing similar issues with narrowing reserve margins and a slow queue, which it has been working to improve through automation and tracking. Part of the problem in MISO is that 58 GW of generation have signed a generator interconnection agreement and have yet to come online.
“MISO will be launching an interactive tool on our website to understand the fuel type, location and reasons these generators are delayed in coming online,” it told FERC. “Additionally, MISO is pursuing a new study process known as the Expedited Resource Adequacy Study that will allow MISO to study interconnection requests necessary for resource adequacy in a matter of months.”
The RTO did a survey of those projects, of which 26 GW have announced they expect delays or just not been energized on time. An additional 15 GW responded, with 40% saying the delay was from transmission issues, 18% from regulatory/permitting issues and 11% from difficulties securing power purchase agreements. Equipment supply chain delays dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic are also often a factor.
Order 2023 is an improvement, but its reforms were narrow, and FERC should continue to work on interconnection issues, argued the Electricity Customer Alliance, the Electricity Consumers Resource Council and R Street Institute. FERC could do another rulemaking or let regional changes bloom, they suggested.
But they also argued the commission should announce an ongoing forum on the best generator interconnection processes that is held at least annually and articulate its policy objectives by issuing a statement.
“The salience of GI reform, beyond Order 2023, continues to grow,” the consumer groups said. “Unnecessarily slow and costly GI process has been a growing economic burden on consumers for years. Grid upgrade costs for generators to interconnect have grown by multiples in many regions, and most of these costs are passed through to consumers. Interconnection wait times have increased from less than two years to a median of five years last year, with some regions now explicitly delaying or pausing the processing of new GI requests. GI delays now present a material reliability risk to consumers, especially as expectations for load growth have increased.”
A New Type of Monitor?
The American Council on Renewable Energy suggested that FERC require regions with delayed queues to set up independent interconnection monitors to evaluate study practices, assumptions and outcomes, and then recommend improvements.
Grid Strategies published a report this month advocating for a similar concept that would require TOs to hire independent construction monitors “to ensure compliance with timelines, budgets and projects specifications, providing transparent and unbiased evaluation throughout the construction phase.”
“Available data — and data are very scarce — suggests that transmission owners’ budget priorities and construction management practices may play a substantial role in these construction phase delays,” the report says. “With perhaps half of all projects with interconnection agreements being significantly stalled or facing substantial cost overruns during the construction phase, this is a serious and widespread issue.”
Construction monitors would get access to often sensitive data and be an independent set of eyes that could identify issues causing delays and make expert recommendations on how to speed up construction and equipment procurement, the report says.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Clean energy experts at this year’s Annual Meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners last week expressed confidence in the U.S.’ progress toward decarbonizing the grid.
But just over a week after the U.S. re-elected former President Donald Trump, some also questioned how his plans to disrupt Inflation Reduction Act funding could impact the momentum of the energy transition.
“All the progress that’s been made in the last four years … there’s absolutely a concern that it [IRA funds] will get rescinded, paused or subject to infinite delays that cause them to be ineffective at transforming not just the economy, but the grid itself,” Sara Baldwin, senior director of electrification at Energy Innovation, told RTO Insider.
The IRA unlocked billions in funds and incentives for clean energy, but Trump has signaled an intent to roll back the historic climate legislation. (See Trump 2.0: Rolling Back Regulations, IRA Funding.) But because the U.S. doesn’t have a federal mandate for clean energy, Baldwin is counting on state policy and demand to maintain the flow of new clean generation onto the grid.
Speaking on a NARUC panel Nov. 12, Priya Barua, senior director of market policy and innovation at the Clean Energy Buyers Association, added that a “shift in the corporate mindset” has led to an exponential growth of companies that are voluntarily working toward “science-based targets” and “net-zero goals,” further stoking confidence in the buildout of clean energy.
“We’re in a really interesting and exciting juncture where there’s this opportunity to empower large energy customers, many of whom are driving some of this energy demand, to be a part of the solution at a system level,” Barua said.
‘The Trifecta’
But continuing to bring new clean energy online will require balancing reliability, affordability and decarbonization — what Baldwin refers to as “the trifecta” — with cost.
About 40% of the U.S. grid consists of clean generation, but cost and commercialization gaps remain. Natural gas generation will play an “absolutely critical role” in maintaining reliability as the grid moves beyond 40%, Baldwin said, but in the meantime, developers and policymakers should focus on deploying wind, solar, batteries and demand-side resources, rather than focusing just on firm power.
Doug Vine, director of energy analysis at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, also emphasized the need for firming resources to complement solar and batteries, though the proportion is still “an open question.”
Baldwin also identified the need to build a bridge between supply-side and demand-side planning and better understand the connection between the two.
‘Tools in the Toolbox’
Panelists were united in the belief that clean energy presents an economic opportunity that the incoming administration would be remiss not to take advantage of.
Vine emphasized that clean energy technologies benefit both conservative and liberal states, support workforce development, and bolster energy independence in the U.S.
“It’s something that he [Trump] should support,” Vine said. “And hopefully he will.”
Continuing to enable a more diverse portfolio of reliable, affordable electricity, while also supporting economic development and national security, will allow the U.S. to “leverage the full suite of tools in the toolbox,” Barua said, and fellow panelists echoed the sentiment.
“The federal incentive was a tool in the toolbox to make [clean energy] cost effective and affordable,” Baldwin told RTO Insider. “If we’re smart as a country, we will stay the course and allow these incentives to play out.”
PJM has announced that Paul McGlynn, vice president of planning, will retire in 2025 and his role will be filled by Jason Connell, executive director of transmission and resource adequacy planning.
McGlynn is set to continue serving with PJM through March 31, 2025, with Connell taking over as planning vice president on Jan. 1, 2025, to allow for a transitionary period. Connell has held several positions in PJM’s system planning department over his 12 years with the RTO, which came after a career at PECO doing transmission and substation engineering.
“This is an incredibly dynamic time to be planning for the evolution of this industry,” Connell said in a PJM announcement. “I am excited to support and continue PJM’s important work to design and manage the grid of the future while preserving reliability.”
Aftab Khan, executive vice president for operations, planning and security, said Connell “brings strong planning experience and leadership capabilities to ensure a smooth transition and to manage the evolving needs of the PJM grid.” He also thanked McGlynn for 17 years of contributions to PJM’s operations and planning departments.
McGlynn was named vice president of planning in November 2023 following the retirement of Ken Seiler. He then was managing PJM’s real-time dispatch operations and assisted in developing near-term reliability studies, load forecasting, and the coordination of generation and transmission outages. He previously served as PJM’s senior director of system planning, which saw him administering the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) process. (See Retirements and New Faces on PJM Executive Team.)
“It has been my privilege to have worked in this industry,” McGlynn said. “I am proud to have been part of such an outstanding team doing extremely important work for the energy industry, and I know PJM will continue to forge ahead with efficiency, innovation and technologically sound solutions to fulfill our critical mission of reliability.”
In an antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court Nov. 12, Avangrid accused NextEra Energy of conducting an “exclusionary and anticompetitive scheme” to stop a major transmission project connecting New England to Quebec, costing customers millions of dollars in elevated electric rates and delaying the region’s clean energy transition (3:24-cv-30141).
“NextEra has committed anticompetitive, unfair and deceptive business practices to foreclose competition for the supply of wholesale electricity on the ISO New England marketplaces,” Avangrid told the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. “NextEra has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from these illegal practices.”
The 1,200-MW New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project was selected by Massachusetts in 2018 in a clean energy solicitation but faced a series of regulatory, legal and political obstacles delaying its development. Construction on the project resumed in 2023 after a two-year pause. (See Avangrid Details Progress on NECEC Tx Line.)
While Avangrid initially expected the project to come online in December 2022, its “most optimistic estimated in-service date” now is January 2026, the company wrote.
The delay comes with a hefty price tag to ratepayers; in October, Massachusetts’ electric utilities submitted a settlement agreement that would result in a $521 million cost increase in 2017 dollars, equal to about $670 million today (DPU 24-160).
Carbon emissions in the state also likely increased from the delay; utilities have estimated NECEC would reduce carbon emissions by about 1.93 million metric tons annually, equivalent to nearly 3% of the state’s emissions in 2021.
In its suit, Avangrid estimated damages of at least $350 million and demanded a jury trial. The company seeks an award of three times the damages, as well as interest, legal costs and an injunction “barring NextEra from continuing to undertake its anticompetitive scheme.”
Avangrid describes NextEra’s opposition to the project as a “a three-pronged scheme to delay or stop NECEC,” comprising “objectively baseless attacks” on its permitting applications, covert political funding to stop the project and a refusal to upgrade a circuit breaker at its Seabrook nuclear plant to accommodate the line.
“Through this premeditated and interwoven scheme, NextEra has and is continuing to exclude from the New England grid the clean and low-cost electricity NECEC would bring,” Avangrid wrote. “NextEra’s scheme has harmed competition, damaged Avangrid and consumers and held Massachusetts’ clean energy transition hostage.”
Along with the Seabrook plant, NextEra owns two oil generators in Maine, a gas plant in Massachusetts and several smaller clean energy resources throughout the region. Avangrid argued that NextEra’s incumbent generators have made “inflated profits” from the higher energy prices caused by NECEC’s delay.
Avangrid wrote that NextEra worked to slow NECEC’s permitting approval through “at least 10 serial sham petitions, which no reasonable litigant could realistically expect to succeed on the merits.”
Along with regulatory challenges, NextEra also helped fund two ballot referendum efforts in Maine to stop the project. The first referendum was deemed unconstitutional by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which also invalidated a second successful ballot question opposing the line.
NextEra spent about $20 million to fund the second ballot question. In 2023, two opposition groups associated with NextEra-funded efforts to stop the project were fined a cumulative $210,000 for campaign finance violations, including a $150,000 contribution to the Maine Democratic Party made in the name of a pop-up company called Alpine Initiatives.
According to the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog nonprofit, NextEra has also funded a group working to oppose offshore wind in Maine.
Avangrid also alleges NextEra’s efforts to avoid installing a circuit breaker at its Seabrook plant are part of the company’s overall opposition strategy.
NextEra then appealed the ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing FERC does not have jurisdiction to require the company to upgrade the circuit breaker. The D.C. Circuit affirmed FERC’s ruling in October. (See DC Circuit Affirms FERC Ruling on Seabrook Circuit Breaker Dispute.)
Avangrid argued NextEra “purposefully allowed the Seabrook breaker to creep up to almost 100% capacity so that any substantial new power source seeking to join the New England grid would be blocked unless NextEra agreed to cooperate.”
“NextEra knew the Seabrook breaker was at near-capacity for a decade, and that operating under such conditions created enormous risks associated with a potential fault, should the breaker be over-dutied,” Avangrid wrote, emphasizing that NextEra risked “human life and a nuclear plant disaster.”
Avangrid also alleged top NextEra executives “demanded an improper quid pro quo,” offering to drop its opposition to the line if Avangrid would purchase power from the Seabrook plant at “substantially above-market rates.”
“NextEra’s naked quid pro quo offer was simply a ploy to force Avangrid to pay NextEra the money it would lose when NECEC would enter the market,” Avangrid wrote.
All of these actions amount to violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the Massachusetts Antitrust Act and the Massachusetts Unfair Trade Practice Act, Avangrid alleged.
“Both on its own and in conspiracy with others, NextEra engaged in a multifaceted, scorched-earth scheme to delay and even try to block NECEC altogether. NextEra’s actions have delayed Avangrid from offering clean, lower cost electricity through ISO New England’s wholesale electricity marketplaces. …
“This conduct included overt acts that constitute monopolization, attempted monopolization, civil conspiracy, intentional interference with contract, sham petitioning, dark-money deception, and false and misleading statements.”
NextEra did not respond to repeated requests for comment in time for publication. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office also did not respond.
New York is dipping another toe in the water on nuclear power, trying to determine market interest in developing advanced generation technologies in the state.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority issued a request for information Nov. 15.
The move comes two months after NYSERDA issued a draft blueprint for consideration of advanced nuclear technologies at a summit convened to discuss the state’s future energy economy. All forms of clean energy were on the agenda, but nuclear had a more prominent role in the discussion. (See NY Takes a Closer Look at Advanced Nuclear.)
Nuclear historically has been very expensive and controversial, but it is increasingly attractive to a growing number of policymakers, as next-generation technology is touted as safer, faster and cheaper to build.
So far it is none of those things, but the potential is exciting, given the imperative to generate more electricity with less emissions.
New York officials have maintained a neutral tone on the prospect of expanding its presence in the Democratic-controlled state, but they, too, appear interested. The state has fallen behind on the ambitious decarbonization schedule lawmakers set, as utility-scale wind and solar projects see delays, cancellations and soaring prices.
Even if New York exceeded its goals for solar and wind, nuclear and its near-100% capacity factor could provide an important backstop for intermittent renewables.
There has been bipartisan federal support for developing next-generation nuclear technology, and New York is laying groundwork to make decisions once it is commercially viable.
In a Nov. 15 news release, NYSERDA President Doreen Harris explained the reasons, again without specifically endorsing more nuclear generation within state borders: “As local, national and international companies pursue nuclear energy for their on-site energy needs and the federal government signals interest in investing in this resource, we recognize that now is the time to position New York to fully engage this new sector that can drive significant economic development.”
Two days earlier, during a fireside chat with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) also did not explicitly call for more atoms to be split in the Empire State.
But she did say New York would lose a competitive edge with other states if it didn’t allow large commercial/industrial loads to use plug-and-play small modular reactors, once the technology is developed and approved.
Nuclear is something people have not been talking about for a long time, Hochul said, but New York needs to take another look at it.
New York state has four operational commercial reactors. In 2023 they provided 22% of the state’s electricity and 45% of its zero-emission electricity. Three of the reactors rank among the oldest operational units in the nation, first licensed 50 to 55 years ago.
NYSERDA’s request for information seeks to identify entities pursuing or interested in pursuing a role in the development of next-generation nuclear energy in New York.
It will, Harris said, let NYSERDA develop partnerships and initiatives for complementary resources, and keep the state in the forefront of emerging energy technologies.
NYSERDA hopes to hear not only from prospective developers but supply chain companies, potential host communities and entities in the workforce development, finance and research and development sectors.
Meanwhile, NYSERDA is finalizing its draft nuclear blueprint. The State Energy Planning Board is readying the latest update of the State Energy Plan, which provides broad direction on program and policy development in the public and private sectors.
And the Department of Public Service continues the work begun in June 2015 on implementing a Large-Scale Renewable Energy Program and a Clean Energy Standard (case 15-E-0302).
Environmental advocates won a round in their long-running court battle over the conversion of a New York peaker plant into a cryptocurrency mining operation.
A county-level court on Nov. 14 ordered the state Public Service Commission to reconsider the decision that allowed the conversion to go through.
The PSC opted not to block the sale because it posed no potential harm to captive utility ratepayers and no potential exercise of market power.
FERC authorized the transaction because it found no impact on horizontal or vertical competition, no adverse impact on rates, no impairment of regulation and no cross-subsidization.
The Sierra Club and the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York challenged the PSC’s ruling on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, which mandated policies to reduce the use of fossil fuel and minimize its impacts. (See Green Groups Seek to Block NY Power Plant Sale to Crypto Miner.)
The challenge initially was rejected in court and by the PSC, and the sale was finalized in early 2023.
Operation of the crypto facility has generated noise and air quality complaints in the neighborhood and prompted North Tonawanda to enact a two-year moratorium on new or expanded data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations.
Digihost, in its quarterly earnings report Nov. 15, called the North Tonawanda facility its flagship power plant. It said it had completed maintenance work and soon would bring the plant back to full operation.
The Nov. 14 ruling by Justice Richard Platkin in Albany County Supreme Court reopens the case before the PSC.
The PSC had no comment Nov. 15, saying only that it would review the latest ruling.
Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups, celebrated the ruling.
Earthjustice said in a news release that the PSC erred in its review of the proposal, and said this allowed a gas peaker plant that had been operating 10 to 74 days a year to ramp up to 24/7/365 operation. This boosted carbon dioxide emissions as much as 3,500%, it said, and increased output of other harmful pollutants.
“This is not only a victory for the North Tonawanda community, but also a significant win for New York’s climate law,” said Dror Ladin, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “Today’s ruling confirms that every state agency and official must fully consider and uphold the CLCPA in all its decisions, safeguarding both our climate and the well-being of the public.”
The ruling was not a clean sweep for the environmental advocates.
Justice Platkin rejected their contention that the PSC failed to consider the impact on several nearby disadvantaged communities, as it is required to do under the CLCPA. The state had not finalized its designation of disadvantaged communities at the time, he ruled, and therefore the PSC could not have considered such impacts.
And he rejected the complainants’ request for declaratory judgment.
But the PSC had argued that allowing the sale to go forward was not an “affirmative approval” and therefore not subject to CLCPA requirements, and this was incorrect, Platkin wrote.
So he annulled the PSC rulings and remanded the matter for further proceedings.
If the PSC determines the sale will interfere with the state’s greenhouse gas emissions limits, it must identify alternatives or mitigation measures to be required near the plant, Platkin wrote.
An earlier appeal in the same case determined that substantial completion of a project may render a case moot, he wrote, but the CLCPA allows for substantial relief short of completely unwinding a transaction.
President-elect Donald Trump is laying the ground for a major, fossil-fuel-friendly U-turn in U.S. energy policy with his nominations of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) as secretary of the interior and Chris Wright, a fracking company CEO, as secretary of energy.
In a Nov. 15 statement, Trump also announced that Burgum will chair “the newly formed and very important National Energy Council, which will consist of all departments and agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation [and] transportation of all forms of American energy.”
The council will focus on “cutting red tape, enhancing private-sector investments across all sectors of the economy and [promoting] innovation over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.”
While pledging to expand all forms of energy production, the statement reiterates Trump’s intention to “drill, baby, drill” to increase U.S. production and consumption of fossil fuels with the goal of increasing baseload power and reducing energy costs.
Trump first teased Burgum’s nomination during a speech at the America First Policy Institute Gala at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 14. “I won’t tell you his name,” he said. “It might be something like Burgum. He’s going to head the Department of Interior, and he’s going to be fantastic.”
The announcement of Wright’s nomination came Nov. 16. A self-described “tech nerd turned entrepreneur,” he is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based company that, according to the company’s website, offers efficient, lower-emission fracking equipment.
Wright also promotes the ongoing use of fossil fuels — which he calls “hydrocarbons” — as critical to progress in human living conditions. In a video, posted to his company’s website in April, Wright argued that opposition to fossil fuels is limited to industrialized countries, but “global demand for oil, natural gas and coal are all at record levels and rising. No energy transition has yet begun.
“Modern alternatives like solar and wind work in one sector, the electricity sector, and they don’t even have prospects to replace most of the uses of hydrocarbons, making energy more expensive.”
Burgum would replace Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold the position, and Wright would replace Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the second woman to lead the department.
Under Granholm, the Department of Energy has become a major driver of the commercialization and scaling of a range of clean energy technologies. The department received about $35 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and has been distributing the funds to a range of clean energy programs — as well as to states, cities and companies through loans — over the past two years, intended to decarbonize the U.S. to meet President Joe Biden’s policy of reducing emissions by half by 2050.
Trump is expected to issue a halt on further distribution of unspent IRA funds as soon as he is in office and to lift the current pause on new LNG export facilities.
Burgum
“Serving as interior secretary is an opportunity to redefine and improve upon the federal government’s relationship with tribal nations, landowners, mineral developers, outdoor enthusiasts and others, with a focus on maximizing the responsible use of our natural resources with environmental stewardship for the benefit of the American people,” Burgum said in a statement. He said the new council “will foster an unprecedented level of coordination among federal agencies to advance American energy.”
Speaking to reporters in North Dakota on Nov. 12, Burgum said the second Trump administration is “thinking about significant, substantial change. They are thinking about changing the direction of how the federal government works.”
Born and raised in North Dakota, Burgum, 68, started out as a computer entrepreneur, growing a local company, Great Plains Software, from an accounting software startup to a publicly traded firm with 2,200 employees across the state. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2001.
Before winning his first election as governor in 2016, Burgum worked for Microsoft for several years and then started a real estate development company and a venture capital firm.
Re-elected in 2020, Burgum had supported an all-of-the-above approach to energy, prioritizing innovation over regulation. North Dakota is the third-largest producer of crude oil in the U.S.
At the same time, the Energy Information Administration reports that wind is the second-largest source of electricity in the state, providing about 40% of its power, versus the 55% provided by coal.
As a state that produces more energy than it consumes, North Dakota is also seen as a potential new hub for data center development. The state has only seven data centers, but those facilities have driven the highest percentage of power demand increase in the U.S. — 37% — according to EIA figures. Six new data centers are under development in the state.
In 2021, hours before Granholm landed for a state visit, Burgum issued a challenge for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030, primarily through carbon capture and sequestration. A press release from the governor’s office at that time noted that North Dakota has “252 billion tons of underground storage capacity — enough to store 4,400 years’ worth of the state’s carbon output or 50 years’ worth of the nation’s energy-related carbon output.”
“We can reach carbon neutrality in the state of North Dakota by 2030 without a single mandate, without any additional regulation. We can get there just through the innovation and the different geology that we have,” Burgum said at the time. “We are excited to hear how the federal government is going to join the states, join the private sector, in investing in the technology to help us get to where we need [to be].”
Burgum could have run for a third term as governor, but this year, he said he would not. He briefly ran for president in 2023 but dropped out of the race before the Iowa caucuses and threw his support to Trump. According to multiple media reports, Burgum helped organize a now-infamous campaign dinner for Trump and oil and gas executives, during which Trump asked for $1 billion in donations from the group.
Burgum also has a close relationship with Harold G. Hamm, the founder and CEO of Continental Resources, one of the nation’s largest independent oil producers, who also helped organize the dinner.
Wright
Wright also is close to Hamm, who recently told Hart Energy, an oil and gas industry publication, that Wright was his top choice to lead DOE.
In a statement announcing Wright’s nomination, Trump called him a “leading technologist and entrepreneur in energy.”
“He has worked in nuclear, solar, geothermal, and oil and gas,” Trump said. “Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence and transformed the global energy markets and geopolitics.”
Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright | Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Wright has no prior government experience. His online profiles are focused on his education and career as a fracking pioneer. He has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and “did graduate work” at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, according to his company profile.
Pinnacle Technologies, which he started in 1992, was an early mover in fracking. He served as CEO of the company until 2006 and founded Liberty, originally Liberty Resources, in 2010.
He also describes himself as a “passionate father, grandfather, skier, cyclist, climber and outdoor enthusiast,” and he was a major donor to Trump’s campaign, providing at least $228,390, according to ABC News.
Wright has used social media to promote his beliefs that climate change is not a major threat and fossil fuels are critical to human life and progress. In a 2023 video, he claimed there is no “climate crisis. … The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive, opportunity-squelching policies justified in the name of climate change.”
In the April 2024 video, he backtracked slightly, saying that “climate change is a global challenge. I’ve worked in it for 20 years, but it’s far from the world’s greatest threat to human life.
“Zero energy poverty by 2050 is a superior goal to net-zero emissions 2050 … for two reasons. No. 1, it’s achievable, and No. 2, progress [toward] that goal makes the world a better place. I can’t say either one is true for net zero 2050.”
Wright also links fossil fuels to general goals to improve life in developing countries. In January, he launched the Bettering Human Lives Foundation, which promotes the use of propane cooking appliances to replace the use of wood, charcoal and dung for cooking in many developing countries. Wright has pledged $1 million per year to fund the effort.
Reactions
The double nomination for Burgum quickly had multiple media outlets dubbing him Trump’s “energy czar,” while Wright was characterized as a Trump campaign donor and loud opponent of efforts to combat climate change.
Reactions to both nominations were, predictably, divided.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who will be the Senate majority whip in the new Congress, praised both.
Burgum “knows what it takes to unleash American energy,” Barrasso said. “He recognizes how important our federal lands are for energy and mineral production, grazing and recreation. As North Dakota’s governor, he’s shown he can balance environmental stewardship with record energy development.”
Wright, he said, is “an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. … Our country is desperate for an [energy] secretary who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security.”
Manish Bapna, CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, linked Burgum to Trump’s “plan to open more public lands and ocean waters to the dangers of oil and gas drilling. That’s the wrong direction for the country. Now he’s tapped someone with close ties to the oil and gas industry to spearhead the scheme.”
Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, blasted Wright as “utterly unqualified for the job” and declared that “the Sierra Club is ready to do all we can to stop him and his pro-polluter agenda.
“Chris Wright is a climate denier who has profited off of polluting our communities and endangering our health and future,” Jealous said in a statement.
If confirmed, Wright will “be hell-bent on abusing his power to prolong the use of deadly fossil fuels and give his corporate polluter executive friends a rubber stamp for the unfettered buildout of LNG exports,” Jealous said. “Clean air and clean water are not a priority for these people, and their reckless ideas and policies will only further harm the American people.”
Texas regulators on Nov. 14 approved the state’s first utility resiliency plan, a $3 billion proposal from Oncor to bulk up its distribution system over the next four years to better withstand and more quickly recover from extreme weather and other events (56545).
The Oncor System Resiliency Plan includes measures to mitigate wildfire risk, strengthen its overhead and underground distribution systems, protect against lightning strikes, expand vegetation management programs, implement physical security at critical facilities and strengthen the digital capability of its system against cybersecurity threats.
Oncor in August reached an unopposed settlement with Public Utility Commission staff, the Office of the Public Utility Counsel, the Alliance of Oncor Cities, the Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor, Texas Industrial Energy Consumers and Walmart over the plan.
Brian Lloyd, Oncor vice president of regulatory policy, said the utility worked with the intervenors to expand its vegetation management program in a “proactive, more efficient, cheaper manner” before storms hit, rather than cleaning up the damage and booking the costs after.
“We do believe this plan ultimately will mean we avoid costs,” he told the PUC commissioners during their open meeting. “The post-storm vegetation management is the most expensive vegetation management you can do, so by moving that ahead and doing it proactively, using our new technology to really tackle where that vegetation is grown the fastest, we do believe, over time, it’s going to have a significant impact.”
“Obviously, a lot of work went into this. Staff, all the intervenors, but definitely Oncor as well,” PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson said. “Going first is never easy. Thank you for working to get us a plan that we could ultimately support and that got broad-based support.”
“These investments have been methodically selected to have the greatest impact in proactively addressing potential outage causes,” Oncor CEO Allen Nye said in a statement. “And even more important to the people we serve, it will also substantially reduce outage minutes.”
Under House Bill 2555 passed by the 2023 Texas Legislature, electric utilities must file resiliency plans with the PUC. They must include measures that help prevent, withstand, mitigate or more promptly recover from resiliency events (e.g., extreme weather, wildfires and cybersecurity or physical security threats).
The commission also is reviewing plans filed by AEP Texas, Texas-New Mexico Power and Entergy Texas.
CenterPoint Audit
The PUC agreed to conduct a “management audit” of CenterPoint Energy over its post-storm recovery performance this year, meeting a request from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston resident, during a rare public hearing in the city in October. (See Texas Politicos, Residents Bash CenterPoint.)
The commissioners directed staff to prepare a request for proposals for a third party to conduct the audit and deliver its findings in April. Gleeson said that will allow the commission to hand over findings and any recommendations to state lawmakers before they adjourn their biennial session in May.
“I think there are a few things we can look at, [like] CenterPoint’s policies and procedures when procuring goods from a third party,” Gleeson said, an apparent reference to the utility’s $800 million lease of portable generators that it was unable to use in restoring power following July’s Hurricane Beryl.
“I think it’s hard for us not to do something here,” Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty said. “This is [Patrick’s] backyard, and he has been a part of this recovery from this hurricane since the very beginning. I think that we owe it to him to find some more answers, and this is an appropriate way to do so.”
The audit is separate from the PUC’s investigation into CenterPoint’s and other Houston-area utilities’ performance during Beryl and a May derecho that took out a major 345-kV transmission line. A report is due to Gov. Greg Abbott and the legislature by Dec. 1.
The commission also was prepared to rule on CenterPoint’s request to withdraw a $60 million rate case filed earlier this year, but the utility notified the PUC on Nov. 8 that it was withdrawing its request. CenterPoint said it instead would continue settlement negotiations with cities and consumer representatives that it had earlier claimed would distract it from its efforts to improve resilience and regain public confidence (56211).
The consumer groups have argued that CenterPoint overcharged customers by more than $100 million during the 2023 test case. The utility said withdrawing the rate case would have allowed it to use 2024 as its test year.
“We obviously heard from folks in Houston; we heard from the lieutenant governor and multiple members of the Senate on this,” Gleeson said. “I’m glad that they withdrew their appeal, and I look forward to this rate case.”
After nearly two years of debates, negotiations, and last-minute stalling by Republicans in the state House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Legislature has sent a wide-ranging climate bill to the desk of Gov. Maura Healey, who has indicated she will sign the legislation.
The bill features major changes to the state’s permitting procedures for clean energy infrastructure and would make significant reforms to gas utility regulation, making it easier for the utilities to retire portions of the gas distribution network (S.2967). (See Mass. Clean Energy Permitting, Gas Reform Bill Back on Track.)
It also includes notable provisions supporting electric vehicle charging infrastructure, authorizing a major procurement of battery storage resources, increasing the allowable length of offshore wind contracts, and boosting advanced transmission technologies and advanced metering infrastructure.
The House and Senate failed to reach an agreement before the end of formal sessions in the summer to reconcile separate climate bills passed through each chamber, but legislators continued work into the fall and announced a compromise in October. (See Mass. Lawmakers Fail to Pass Permitting, Gas Utility Reform.)
After the compromise bill passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to 2, Republicans in the House demanded a roll call vote, delaying its passage by three weeks. The House ultimately approved the bill with a vote of 128 to 17.
Climate and clean energy advocates in the state generally applauded the bill’s approval.
Kat Burnham of Advanced Energy United called the legislation “a crucial step forward,” adding that the permitting provisions “will eliminate the inefficient and duplicative processes that currently bog down clean energy projects.”
Jess Nahigian of the Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter commended the legislature for the gas reforms, saying the “reasonable restrictions on expanding our polluting methane gas system … will protect ratepayers, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and create healthier communities.”
Kyle Murray of the Acadia Center said the bill is a “major win for the Commonwealth, for ratepayers, public health, climate resiliency and for our clean energy future,” adding that the gas reforms “will provide the Department of Public Utilities with the needed tools to save ratepayers money on imprudent investments, stranded assets and leaky pipes.”
