This article was originally published by WHIZ.
By Matt Morris
BYESVILLE, Ohio. – Ohio 12th District U.S. Congressman Troy Balderson attended a roundtable discussion with energy industry providers to discuss the importance of providing reliable energy for Ohio’s future.
Balderson, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is partnering with West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to file a Congressional Review Act, joint resolution of disapproval, to formally challenge an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that sets unrealistic emissions requirements on baseload energy power plants.
“The Clean Power Plan 2.0 is what we call it,” Balderson said. “It’s something that… it’s too much too quick and we can’t adapt to it. We are going to hurt our baseload energy. We’re trying to onshore more of our manufacturing. So we need the baseload energy of coal fired plants, we need natural gas, nuclear plants are also a part of that equation, and then we can do the whole portfolio. We can talk about renewables but at the end of the day, we have to have that base load energy.”
Baseload energy is the necessary minimum amount of electricity that is needed to supply the power grid. Renewable energies like solar, and wind cannot sustainably supply the grid. They’re applied to assist the baseload production during times of peak demand.
Ohio Oil and Gas Association Director of External Affairs Mike Chadsey discussed some of the other topics that were covered during the roundtable.
“Energy reliability and the grid. And everything from the PGM, interconnects, to power plants, to other facilities in and around Ohio,” Chadsey said. “So much of the conversation that we have been talking about today is about that reliability and our concerns about trying to put new power on the grid that will be baseload, that will be reliable, that will be affordable, that will be abundant. And so trying to express those messages to the congressman and to his team here today.”
The ability to offer reliable baseline energy is a vital necessity in the attempt to reestablish Ohio as a world leader in manufacturing as well as preventing a system of rolling blackouts and brownouts for Ohio residents.
The Guernsey Power Station is a 1-year-old, state of the art, base electric generation facility that is supplied by natural gas from the recently utilized Utica Shale deposits. Under the requirements set by the Clean Power Plan 2.0, the facility would fail to meet emission standards.
Balderson stated that natural gas is 98 percent clean and that by transitioning from coal, the U.S. has cut its emissions by more than 30 percent, leading the world in pollution reduction.
Click here to read the original article published by WHIZ .
