Biden Climate Goals to Take Backseat in Biggest U.S. Power Grid
- Grid serving 20% of population set to add more gas plants
- Results of PJM auction could further entrench fossil fuels
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The power grid serving nearly 20% of the U.S. population is about to throw a roadblock in President Joe Biden’s plan to decarbonize the electricity sector.
PJM Interconnection LLC, which keeps the lights on for 65 million people from Chicago to Washington, D.C., is expected to clear a fleet of new natural gas plants-- and even extend the lives of some coal plants -- when it releases the results of its massive electricity auction Wednesday. That’s because Trump-era changes to the way the auction is structured give a leg up to fossil fuels, at the expense of zero-carbon sources such as nuclear, wind and solar.