May 11, 2023 

HARRISBURG, PA – While today’s announcement by the Biden Administration to target fossil fuel-fired power plant emissions may sound pleasing to environmentalists, it fails to take into consideration the detrimental effect it will have on daily lives and pocketbooks of Americans and businesses who will be forced to pay more for electricity that ultimately will become less reliable.

Just a few months ago coal generation saved PJM’s grid from failure – accounting for nearly 50% of the generation that rescued the grid from blackouts when other sources failed to show up when called upon. Recognizing this, coal-fired generation is a major source of reliable and resilient baseload generation, and grid operator PJM Interconnection and FERC have recently warned of the future of the reliability of the grid which is being compromised by policies such as this and the $800 million per year Pennsylvania RGGI tax. This all while the Biden Administration continues to push the use of electric vehicles, lacking a coherent plan to power them without the use of reliable, baseload electric generation.

The PA Coal Alliance and its members believe in a diverse energy mix that includes any source that can contribute to a reliable electric grid, including coal-fired generation. Policies like what was released today will compromise our grid, making it increasingly unstable and unreliable, and at a high cost to both consumers and businesses.

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