PJM Plan Prioritizes Connecting Dirty Gas

The Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, represented by Earthjustice, have filed a rehearing request regarding the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee’s (FERC) approval of PJM’s Resource Reliability Initiative (RRI). The RRI would allow large gas-fired power plants to jump the interconnection queue, bypassing renewable energy projects that have been waiting in the queue for over six years.

Last year, PJM announced its proposal to fast-track certain projects in its interconnection queue to address reliability concerns as data centers drive up demand across PJM’s 13-state region. However, the proposal only prioritizes the size of the project over the speed at which it can get online; the RRI does not even require these fast-tracked projects to be online by 2030.

When the proposal was approved in February, Commissioner Chang dissented, stating that the plan was “poorly designed” to address what PJM claims is the need for the proposal. Two other Commissioners issued warnings in their concurrence that the proposal is a “one-time emergency measure”.

“PJM’s RRI is a flawed, unfair proposal that clearly favors dirty, toxic gas plants, when there are plenty of renewable energy projects that have been in the queue for over half a decade that can get online faster, and at a cheaper cost than that of gas plants. We are challenging FERC’s decision because we believe our communities deserve to clean air and water, and cheaper, more efficient electricity. Renewable energy is the answer that can deliver both,” said Sierra Club Staff Attorney Megan Wachspress.

“As it stands, the Commission’s decision lets PJM pick and choose which plants can skip the line without proper guardrails to ensure that these resources don’t pass their upgrade costs to other resources, or even that they come online in time. PJM’s proposed criteria unjustifiably preference large, polluting fossil fuel resources.  But the Commission still has the opportunity to ensure that the Reliability Resource Initiative does not create a fast track for fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy resources that have been waiting to be processed by PJM for years,” said Earthjustice Senior Associate Attorney Ada Statler.