NRECA CEO Jim Matheson urged President-elect Donald Trump to help electric cooperatives deliver affordable, reliable power to rural communities in a Dec. 4 letter to Trump’s transition office.
The letter outlined high-priority actions the new administration can take to support a pro-energy policy agenda that will help meet skyrocketing U.S. electricity demand, remove regulatory burdens for co-ops, and promote the well-being of rural communities.
“Our nation is at an energy crossroads. And your leadership in our nation’s energy policy is more critical than ever,” Matheson told Trump.
Matheson said reliability is under threat from “flawed public policies” that are forcing the premature closure of power plants. That’s a key reason the North American Electric Reliability Corp. expects many states to be at high risk of rolling blackouts in the next five years during normal peak demand conditions. And the problem is exacerbated by increasing demand from data centers, which could consume nearly 10% of all U.S. electric output by 2030, the letter stated.
Matheson listed seven key actions that Trump can take to address these challenges:
- Repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas rule for existing coal-fired and new natural gas plants, as well as other EPA regulations threatening electric reliability.
- Streamline and accelerate federal permitting reviews of energy projects.
- Roll back public lands and species conservation rules that inhibit operation and maintenance of power lines on federal lands and hurt wildfire mitigation efforts.
- Reverse plans that imperil hydroelectric output from the Lower Snake River dams in the Pacific Northwest.
- Effectively use remaining funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve electric infrastructure and enhance grid resilience and reliability.
- Ensure access to important federal programs used by electric co-ops to benefit rural communities, including grant programs at the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy and for broadband deployment.
- Support the Treasury Department in administering crucial direct-pay tax credits that co-ops can use to invest in energy technologies.
“We urge you to take a coordinated approach which ensures that energy projects can be built efficiently, effectively, and at reasonable cost,” Matheson concluded. “And we look forward to supporting your administration’s efforts to cut costly and burdensome regulations that would otherwise undermine affordability and reliability.”
Molly Christian is a staff writer for NRECA.