Caleb Heeringa, Senior Press Secretary, caleb.heeringa@sierraclub.org, (425) 890-9744
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) told reporters he supported including gas plants in the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) that is part of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act. Sierra Club opposes government investment in polluting gas plants, which would undermine the climate and public health benefits of the program while saddling consumers with higher energy costs.
Sen. Manchin is basing his support on the need for grid reliability, but multiple studies have shown that the U.S. can add up to 80% clean energy by 2030 without sacrificing reliability and without building a single new gas plant. This week 21 grid reliability experts, including the former head of the country’s largest grid operator, sent a letter to Congress outlining how the CEPP as currently written can “preserve and enhance” reliability of the grid by investing in new transmission, energy storage and geographically dispersed clean energy.
Expanding the demand for gas at this pivotal moment would only exacerbate the climate crisis, and would crowd out the growth in wind, solar, energy storage that are needed. Gas expansion already presents a threat, as utilities continue to propose new gas plants that would lock in decades of pollution, making the most severe climate outcomes more likely. When the full impacts of methane leaks from the fracking process and pipelines are taken into account, gas’s contribution to the climate crisis rivals coal. The most recent climate report from the United Nations found that expanding the use of gas is incompatible with keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal of the international Paris Agreement.
Wind and solar paired with energy storage solutions and energy efficiency measures are less expensive than most new gas plants right now, and the rapidly rising costs of gas risks a future where today’s new gas plants are ultimately stranded assets that burden utility customers and everyone who has to pay for electricity.
In response, Holly Bender, Senior Director of Energy Campaigns for the Sierra Club, released the following statement:
“There’s nothing clean or reliable about fracked gas, which gets more expensive with each passing day all while wind and solar energy get cheaper and cheaper. Fundamentally, it is essential to recognize that fossil fuels are the cause of the climate crisis, not the solution to it. To protect our climate, clean air and water, public health and customers’ pocketbooks, it’s vital that any Clean Electricity Performance Program invest in truly clean sources of energy like wind and solar and not perpetuate our dependency on the very dirty fuels that are fueling the crisis we must urgently address.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.