Isaac Orr on The Heartland Daily Podcast: Zero-emission mandates are wholly destructive

Last week I joined my former colleague H. Sterling Burnett on The Heartland Institute’s daily podcast. We chat about how zero-emission energy mandates are undermining grid reliability and substantially increasing energy costs in Minnesota and Wisconsin and how mandates like these pose similar problems for the grid nationwide.

Public utilities are profiting from the legislative push for zero-emission energy mandates. Unfortunately, these mandates increase the amounts of expensive, intermittent wind and solar added to the grid, increasing blackouts and brownouts.

Legislators should put an end to the premature retirement of existing coal plants to ensure grid reliability. Reliability, not reducing emissions, should be the primary goal of public utility commissions and policymakers.