Charleston, WV – Today, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the below statement after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it would hold a Reliability Technical Conference to evaluate the impacts to the electric grid from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed power plant rules under section 111 of the Clean Air Act. 

“As Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee I have held multiple hearings with our nation’s electric grid reliability experts — including witnesses from FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — to push them to investigate the impact of the EPA’s proposed rules on our coal and natural gas power plants. And, as an Appropriations Committee member, I ensured an amendment was included in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills pushing EPA to seek this kind of input from FERC and NERC. I am glad to see that FERC has taken up this call and will assess reliability impacts from the EPA’s unreasonable power plant regulations. Natural gas and coal plants are on-demand, dispatchable energy sources that are essential for electric reliability, and I will continue to work to ensure that this Administration does not risk harming our energy and national security,” said Chairman Manchin.