Opinion/Brown: 17 years and still waiting for fixes to New England power grid
Darrèll Brown is vice president of Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island.
The warnings come every winter: Without more fossil fuels New England will face rolling blackouts as it struggles to keep up with high electricity demand. And, every year, media outlets across the region duly report on this supposed crisis.
Except there are never any rolling blackouts.
So, who’s responsible for causing this alarm? ISO-New England, the organization that oversees our six-state power grid. And the person running ISO is none other than Gordon van Welie, CEO. Since at least 2005, he’s been claiming that we could freeze in the dark because we don’t have enough natural gas or power plants to keep the lights on each winter. ISO’s solution? Shutting pieces of the grid down in controlled, rolling blackouts until the system’s supply of electricity can fully meet demand.
We’re all allowed to be wrong. However, ISO is using this mythical threat not only to push for increased fossil fuel usage, but also to throw roadblocks in the way of what we need most — more clean energy. ISO most recently postponed by two years the removal of a long-standing rule that has prevented clean energy from competing with fossil fuels in the ISO markets that determine who generates electricity in the region.
As for why green energy isn’t the solution to fixing the New England power grid, van Welie claims it’s because green energy infrastructure would take too long to build. But he’s been making that claim for the last 17 years — a period when ISO could and should have made real progress incorporating green energy into the grid.
There is a grim irony to all this: No, we are not having controlled blackouts because we don’t have enough fossil power. Instead, we are increasingly experiencing power outages caused by more hurricanes, more nor’easters, higher tides and stronger winds — all of which are driven by climate change. And the root of climate change? The very fossil fuels van Welie touts. So, over the course of the last decade, inaction on clean energy driven by fear of contrived blackouts has, in fact, contributed to an increase in real power outages.
Here in Rhode Island, we’re seeing the effects of climate change firsthand. Sea levels are rising, summers are getting hotter, and the waters of Narraganset Bay are overheating. Higher temperatures on land put Rhode Island residents at increased risk of heat stroke, while higher temperatures in the water are causing iconic New England species such as cod and lobster to flee north in search of colder water.
To fight climate change, we need electricity powered by clean energy — for cars and trucks, for heating homes and businesses, and for public transportation. While the average person might not have heard of ISO, its decisions about electricity affect each of our everyday lives. Funded with money from our electric bills, operating mostly behind closed doors, and with ample influence from power companies, ISO and its markets are charged with securing the right amount and sources of electricity to ensure New England can keep its lights on.
To fight climate change we need a strong and committed power grid operator that makes cleaning up our energy mix its first priority. It has been more than a year since ISO received every New England state’s request to immediately add climate change to its mission statement. This request has been ignored.
It’s time for policymakers in Rhode Island and in the five other New England states to devise to hold ISO accountable. Then and only then will we see real change.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Opinion/Brown: 17 years and still waiting for fixes to New England power grid
