Hot Ferc Summer

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, I trust most of my colleagues have heard of ``Hot Girl Summer'' and the broader Megan Thee Stallion oeuvre.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to declare the start of ``Hot FERC Summer,'' with FERC, of course, being the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Why, you might ask? Well, to paraphrase Ms. Stallion, because now that FERC has put in all that work, it is time for them to be the MVP.

Now, some might say that FERC isn't, dare I say, hot enough to warrant that attention. But for those of us who are serious about fighting the climate crisis, they sure should be.

The Commission ensures our energy markets, generation, and transmission are operating and providing us with affordable, reliable energy. But the best kept secret of all is that FERC is absolutely key to achieving our clean energy goals and a zero carbon economy.

For the last few decades, FERC's biggest push has been to encourage competition in the power sector. FERC Order 888, which just celebrated its 25th birthday a few months ago, may not have cracked the Billboard Top 100, but it has been almost singularly responsible for decarbonizing our electric sector. The order, like most things FERC- related, was, frankly, pretty wonky. But by incentivizing lower-cost gas, nuclear, and renewable energy, it drove the private sector to drastically lower their greenhouse gas emissions and slash electricity costs.

From the perspective of anyone who pays for electricity, that is fantastic news. You pay less for cleaner power.

From the perspective of someone who cares about climate change, it is also amazing because once a clean energy plant is built, you don't need to pay the wind to blow or the Sun to shine. Clean energy is the cheapest source of energy out there, and those old, dirty plants just can't compete.

In my home State of Illinois, a recent study found that it would be cheaper to sell a coal plant that was just built a decade ago for scrap and procure cleaner replacement power through those FERC-organized markets. Thank you, FERC.

To kick off ``Hot FERC Summer,'' I have introduced bills that will help FERC build on this success. The first of these was the Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act, which I introduced with Senator Heinrich, that will ensure that our grid operators are thinking properly about the benefits of building transmission wires across the country.

The second, the Energy PRICE Act, which I introduced just today with Representatives Levin, Huffman, and Bonamici, would help ensure that FERC lives up to its legal responsibility to protect the public welfare by not approving electricity rates that don't account for the cost of greenhouse gas emissions.

I will be dropping a third ``Hot FERC Summer'' bill--I am sorry, a third hot jam next week.

But right now, FERC is at a crossroads. For the first time in years, President Biden has an opportunity to create a Democratic majority at FERC; a majority that will ensure that these incentives are in place to build an electric grid for our 21st century economy; a majority that will ensure that State renewable energy rules are respected and integrated into regional markets, a majority that will ensure that uneconomic fossil fuel plants are subjected to the competitive pressures of a free market that have given us an explosion in solar and wind energy over the past decade; a majority that will ensure that we make further progress in our clean energy goals rather than trying to fight against it.

But in order to do any of that in time to prevent more climate devastation, the President must nominate a Commissioner to FERC, and the Senate must confirm that individual. I urge both to do so as soon as possible to ensure that FERC stays at its full power and that it will be able to continue to be the most important clean energy agency that most of us have never heard of.

As you, of course know, Madam Speaker, ``Hot Girl Summer'' ain't about degrees, but ``Hot FERC Summer'' most definitely is. The record temperatures from Portland to Death Valley, the wildfires, and the coming hurricane season are all the direct result of our failure to decarbonize as quickly as we must.

While this summer is the hottest FERC summer yet, it is coming on the heels of 2020, which was the hottest summer North America has ever seen for as long as we have records. In point of fact, the 10 warmest summers on record have occurred since 1998. If we fail to act, they will be nothing compared to the summers we will experience over the coming decades because while the best chance to take action on climate was 30 years ago, the last chance is now.

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