Letters

Policies driven by greed or in today’s world known as the “Green New Deal”. Are these policies good or bad? The answer lies within your own opinion or checking account. I believe America is the leader in many categories and drives the demand/markets with our purchases. Some want paper not plastic; others purchase on price not quality, some recycle, and others don’t, some companies produce profits the old fashion way, creating a product or service and selling for a profit. Other companies can’t make a profit without government subsidies but then complain about government policies.

The energy industry in most cases has spent billions of dollars on pollution controls in the past four decades building reliable fossil fuel fired generation. I was here at FEM Electric when the first commercial wind towers were built in South Dakota. I remember the electric cooperative family setting initiatives 30% renewable by the year 2030. We hit the 30% goal way before 2030 just showing our members that electric cooperative management and boards do listen, and we hit the goal while keeping electricity reliable and affordable.

Some want to fix what isn’t broken but rest assured they will profit from it at the expense of your bank account. In the Midwest utilities have worked hard for over seventy years to make sure our members and communities have Safe, Affordable, and Reliable power. There are some organizations and individuals that want to change this, and you and your children will bear the cost.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized new rules to regulate power plants. These rules are unlawful, unachievable rules that jeopardize reliable electricity.

These new rules undermine electric reliability and pose grave consequences for an already stressed electric grid. The American economy can’t succeed without reliable electricity. This barrage of new EPA rules ignores our nation’s ongoing electric reliability challenges and is the wrong approach at a critical time for our nation’s energy future.

The EPA’s power plant rule, released at the end of April, the most impactful of the four finalized by EPA today, remains unchanged from the agency’s original proposal:

• The rule is unlawful. It violates the law, exceeds EPA’s authority, and disregards Supreme Court rulings.

• The technology isn’t ready. The rule mandates the widespread adoption of technology that is promising, but not ready for prime time.

• The timelines are unrealistic. The rule gives neither existing coal units nor new gas units enough time to reach compliance.

EPA finalized its rule against a backdrop of daunting threats to reliability, as electricity demand surges. It has been noted that in 2024 and 2025 America will see record high electric demand increasing by 2.5% to 3.2% per year.

Meanwhile, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has warned that more than 110 gigawatts of always-available (baseload) generation, enough to power about 35 million homes, will retire through 2033. And all or parts of 19 states are at high risk of rolling blackouts during normal peak conditions over the next five years.

Rural electrics aren’t against renewables, but rural America needs fair energy policies that result in an all of the above fuel source with fair availability and access to the electric grid allowing our economy to thrive and keeping our citizens safe.

- Scott Moore

FEM Electric CEO Ipswich

District 23 House of Representative Candidate