Lawsuit Challenges FERC Approval of Central U.S. Grid Operator’s Fast-Track Energy Plan

Washington, D.C. —

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit today on behalf of environmental groups Clean Wisconsin and Natural Resources Defense Council, and together with Sierra Club, challenged FERC’s approval to fast-track the interconnection of mostly fossil-fueled generation in states where Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) operates.

The lawsuit challenges FERC’s approval of the Expedited Resource Addition Study (ERAS) process, which allows the fast-tracked projects to pass on significant upgrade costs to residential customers and to skip over clean energy projects that have been waiting for years to connect to the grid. MISO, which submitted the proposal to FERC, claims that the fast track is necessary to meet increased demand from data centers powering artificial intelligence.

So far, requests for the FERC-approved fast track are three-quarters gas capacity. That would add at least 18 gigawatts of gas-burning generation in MISO’s footprint, which stretches from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan south to Louisiana and Mississippi. Some of the largest projects include a 1.2 gigawatt gas plant in Paris, Wisconsin—where Clean Wisconsin has already challenged another new gas plant—and three new 1.5 gigawatt gas units to serve Meta data centers in Louisiana, where the state Public Service Commission ignored Earthjustice’s partners’ concerns in fast-tracking state processes as well. Gas-fired generation is more expensive for consumers than the affordable clean energy that dominates MISO’s normal interconnection queue. This year, solar had the lowest levelized cost of energy value at $38-79 per megawatt hour.

Clean Wisconsin, NRDC, and Sierra Club challenge FERC’s decision granting MISO approval to shift the costs of fast-tracked projects to residential customers, and the undue advantages the fast-tracked process will grant to mostly gas-burning power plants over thousands of megawatts of clean energy that could also serve to meet needs. As petitioners raised in the FERC proceeding, the agency improperly dismissed the potential for the fast track to exacerbate challenges in processing and connecting the rest of the queued resources in MISO.

This petition parallels a lawsuit also initiated today by the Sierra Club and clean energy trade organizations, which challenges a similar fast track in MISO’s neighboring grid operator, Southwest Power Pool.

“FERC is letting grid operators like MISO rewrite the rule book to the benefit of fossil fuel and data center companies, and at the expense of everyone else,” said Ada Statler, Senior Associate Attorney at Earthjustice. “FERC is sidelining cheaper clean energy projects, and allowing utilities to pass on the higher costs of methane gas to other customers, despite its legal mandate to ensure just and reasonable rates.”

“ERAS creates a system where a handful of projects, primarily gas plants, get to shortcut the line and receive major financial advantages. It lacks meaningful guardrails that ensure new energy projects come online on a timeframe that keeps up with MISO’s claimed needs,” said Caroline Reiser, Senior Attorney for Climate & Energy at NRDC. “We need an interconnection process that is fair, transparent, and focused on getting the most reliable and affordable resources on the grid quickly. ERAS does the opposite.”

“Clean energy is facing unprecedented challenges, including cancellation of federal tax incentives and the ban on federal environmental permits. This is just another example of the unfair advantage given to polluting, last-century technology,” said Katie Nekola, General Counsel for Clean Wisconsin.

“FERC’s approval of SPP and MISO’s line-cutting proposals will only add to the disruption that has prevented hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy from coming online to serve projected resource needs,” said Greg Wannier, Senior Attorney with the Sierra Club. “Both grid operators are spending too much time trying to benefit monopoly utilities and the gas industry at the expense of clean energy and independent producers. The result will be higher monthly bills for tens of millions of people by locking in new gas-burning power plants ahead of cheaper, shovel-ready clean energy projects. If FERC will not enforce its own fair market rules, the courts must do it for them.”