Legislation introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives would safeguard reliable electric power in the Beaver State so that it is not subject to blackouts and brownouts.
The bill stipulates that the Public Utility Commission “may not authorize or approve a plan by an electric company to retire an electric power generating facility that provides reliable or dispatchable electricity unless the electric company has acquired a presently available generating resource that can provide reliable or dispatchable electricity in an amount that is equal to or greater than the amount of reliable or dispatchable electricity that is provided by the electric power generating facility that the electric company proposes to retire.”
Further, “if an electric company proposes to retire an electric power generating facility that provides reliable or dispatchable electricity in response to federal regulations or requirements that impose increasing costs to the maintenance or operation of the electric power generating facility, the commission, in coordination with the State Department of Energy, shall seek a waiver to the federal regulations or requirements until such time that the electric company acquires a generating resource that can provide reliable or dispatchable electricity in an amount that is equal to or greater than the amount of reliable or dispatchable electricity that is provided by the electric power generating facility that the electric company proposes to retire.”
“Dispatchable” electricity refers to electrical power that can be generated on demand and adjusted as needed to meet fluctuations in energy demand. Dispatchable electricity is produced by power plants or energy sources such as coal, natural gas, oil, hydroelectric, and nuclear, that can be turned on and off and ramped up or down in response to grid requirements.
In contrast, non-dispatchable energy sources, like wind and solar power, depend on weather conditions and cannot be controlled to match demand in real time without storage solutions.
Replacement of firm power plants that produce power on demand with variable wind and solar is insufficient to secure grid reliability with present demand, much less with the added demand likely to flow from the EPA’s de-facto EV mandate, which essentially requires that a minimum of 56 percent of new cars and trucks sold in the United States by 2032 would have to be EVs in order to meet the new emissions standards.
A report released by Grid Strategies in December 2024 shows that electricity demand in the United States is expected to grow by 15 percent over the next five years. This rapid escalation is expected primarily due to the growth of data centers and the power demands of artificial intelligence. Oregon will need to quickly add substantial new reliable electric capacity to meet this demand.
Against this backdrop, Oregon regulators and policymakers are recklessly approving the shutdown of baseload power plants or the cancellation of future projects. The Boardman Coal Plant, operated by Portland General Electric, ceased operations in October 2020, marking the end of coal-fired power generation in the state. (However, that facility has since been replaced by the Carty Generating Station, a 450-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant, adjacent to the former Boardman Coal Plant.) Additionally, in September 2022, the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council officially terminated plans for a proposed 415-megawatt natural gas power plant near the Columbia River in Umatilla County, effectively halting its development.
Simply put, new solar projects cannot and will not fill the demand gap by shutting down dispatchable electricity sources.
While replacing a megawatt of electricity generation from, say, a coal plant with a megawatt of generation from a wind or solar source may appear to be an apple-to-apple swap, that is not the case. This is due to capacity factor, the measure of how often a power plant runs for a specific period of time, expressed as a percentage and calculated by dividing the actual unit of electricity output by the maximum possible output.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar had a capacity factor of just 22 percent in 2023, while wind’s capacity factor was just 33 percent. Comparatively, the capacity factor for nuclear was 93 percent in 2023, while natural gas had a capacity factor of 58 percent, and coal 42 percent. So, a megawatt-to-megawatt swap from a dispatchable power source to these non-dispatchable sources results in a decrease in overall capacity. As more dispatchable sources of the grid are swapped for non-dispatchable sources, the less reliable the grid becomes.
In Oregon, solar power facilities provide power at only 23.5 percent of capacity factors in 2023. In effect, this means that Oregon relies heavily upon its baseload natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric plants to keep the lights on, run air conditioners, and support critical infrastructure.
For the benefit of all Oregonians, existed baseload plants should not be shut down. If a political decision is made to shut them down anyway, new baseload and dispatchable power plants should replace them. This legislation would ensure that this takes place.
The following documents provide more information about “renewable” energy sources.
Clearing the Air: Honest Truths about Green Energy
https://www.theamericanconsumer.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Clearing-the-Air.pdf
This report from the American Consumer Institute details many of the environmental impacts associated with the so-called green energy forms being heavily promoted. The life cycle of all three—the wind turbine, solar panel, and EV battery—involve significant environmental consequences that should not be overlooked and need to be part of the discussion when implementing energy policies.
Policy Brief: How the Green New Deal’s Renewable Energy Mining Would Harm Humans and the Environment
https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/PBdriessenmining2Apr20.pdf
In this Heartland Institute Policy Brief, Paul Driessen, senior policy advisor with the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow, argues expanding mining on the scale needed to meet the renewable energy requirements contained in the Green New Deal and other proposed renewable energy mandates would cause unimaginable harm to the environment, wildlife, and humans.
Policy Brief: Protecting the Environment from the Green New Deal
https://heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/EnviHarmsPB.pdf
This Heartland Policy Brief by Paul Driessen, senior policy advisor with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, reviews the largely ignored environmental damage that would result from the expanded use of renewable energy mandated under the Green New Deal.
The 100 Percent Renewable Energy Myth
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Renewable-Myth-Policy-Brief219.pdf
This Policy Brief from the Institute for Energy Research argues that a countrywide 100 percent renewable plan would put the U.S. economy in jeopardy. The brief investigates the intermittency, land requirements, capacity factors, and cost of transition and construction materials that limit the ability of the U.S. to adapt to 100 percent renewable energy.
Nothing in this Research & Commentary is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of The Heartland Institute. For further information on this subject, visit Environment & Climate News, The Heartland Institute’s website, and PolicyBot, Heartland’s free online research database.
The Heartland Institute can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Heartland’s Government Relations department, at governmentrelations@heartland.org or 312/377-4000.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
