This article was originally published by The Empowerment Alliance and is re-published here with permission.
Imagine if the federal government enacted legislation that would lead to generations of prosperity for Americans without resorting to budget-busting federal handouts or subsidies.
Imagine if the law guaranteed the most affordable heating and cooling bills for households and businesses for decades to come.
Imagine if such legislation ensured U.S. energy independence and security, forever ending the threat of foreign countries cutting off our supply of oil or gas – and even making other countries dependent on American energy.
As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, could there be any better gift than such guarantees, securities and freedoms?
We don’t have to imagine such a tremendous birthday present. A bill has been introduced in Congress which would accomplish all those objectives and more.
U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH), has introduced the Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Security Act (ARC-ES), designed to codify into law several commonsense directives that the nation’s leaders should have been following for decades.
As described by a press release announcing the bill’s introduction, the legislation “would require relevant federal agencies—such as the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency—to review any actions relating to affordable, reliable, or clean energy within 90 days and submit a report to Congress. The bill guarantees that our most affordable and reliable energy sources, including nuclear and natural gas, remain part of the energy mix – a crucial requirement to guarantee affordable and reliable energy for American households and businesses.”
As Balderson put it, “We saw under the Biden Administration how unelected bureaucrats were able to derail American energy policy by effectively shutting down our baseload, reliable energy productions. This bill restores regulatory sanity. There could be no better gift to all Americans as we approach our 250th birthday than the promise of affordable, reliable and secure energy, for today and for generations to come.”
The ball started rolling in the last couple of years in states like Louisiana and Ohio, with others on the verge of following suit. State after state has begun to break away from the stranglehold of politically motivated energy initiatives based on the fallacy of “alternatives” – a dangerous movement that was putting Americans on the fast track to a bleak energy future featuring unreliable electric grids, reliance on foreign countries to rescue us from blackouts, and skyrocketing energy bills.
As states begin to realize that affordable and reliable energy is crucial to our prosperity and security, they began to act. But always hanging over their heads during the Biden administration (and even before that) was the threat of penalties and loss of subsidies for not setting target dates to phase out oil and gas in favor of a complete reliance on “renewables” like wind and solar.
While so-called “renewables” can be an important part of the energy landscape, they have so far proven to be unreliable, failing test after test when they are artificially employed as the dominant energy provider. The widespread blackouts earlier this year in Spain, Portugal and parts of France were testaments to the still untested properties of “alternatives,” and it’s no surprise that those countries had to turn to natural gas to restore power.
Someday in the future, when their efficacy is more perfected, “renewables” might be in a position to carry more of the energy load. But forcing our most reliable and affordable energy sources to the sidelines before emerging technology is complete is illogical, impractical and unaffordable. The consequences would be disastrous.
While President Trump and his administration are doing all they can to roll back the disastrous Biden energy policies, enduring changes must come from Congress. That’s why the ARC-ES bill introduced by Balderson is not just important – it’s historic.
For the first time, states will know with confidence that their efforts to codify safe, reliable and affordable energy for their citizens will be supported by federal legislation, policies and agencies. Definitions of what constitutes “clean energy” will be aligned locally and nationally. State-based energy projects seeking federal loans or grants will be consistent with federal guidelines.
Crucially, the Balderson bill, as detailed in the press release, “formally defines three key energy terms for energy regulators: affordable, reliable, and clean. Currently, these terms can be left open to interpretation by the executive branch and can shift from one administration to the next. While President Trump has worked to roll back the previous administration’s Green New Deal agenda, this legislation would make those reversals legally binding.”
Thanks to this legislation, science and evidence will replace leftwing political correctness and radical climate change ideology as the guiding principles of U.S. energy policy. When passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the law will be regarded as among the most significant pieces of legislation ever enacted. It would represent the greatest gift to the U.S. from the president and Congress that Americans could hope for on the occasion of our nation’s 250th birthday.
Americans from coast to coast should contact their elected officials in Congress and urge them to support the ARC-ES act. It’s a fitting birthday present for our entire nation, and a lasting legacy for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.
Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
Photograph – Why would someone want to be a walking advertisement for store brand hair dye?
Better than a Newsom Cover Boy narcissist look.
We need a new metric to replace the fraudulent LCOE. Call it LCOED – Levelized cost of electricity delivered.
It would necessarily include all costs required to provide 24/7 99.99% available electricity delivered to the end user meter.
Of course we already have this tool, it’s called Net Present Value analysis (NPV). Just make people use it.
BTW, there is no such thing as VARS. The idea that “grid forming” power electronics can replace megatons of rotating inertia on the grid is a joke.
Today, yes. But it is not impossible that future technological advancements create a grid forming power electronics system that can work.
None of the suggestions to date of how that could be accomplished are worth the electrons wasted publishing the concepts.
I prefer Life Cycle Cost of Electricity Delivered.
Soup to nuts plus clearing the table, washing the dishes, and mopping the floor.
Story Tip:
AUS Battery Facility Failure:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/11/another-battery-catastrophe.php
I am clearly missing something. The bill will require three agencies to review any ne energy plans, and report to Congress within 90 days. How ill that ensure energy security?
What did I miss, or what was left out of the article?
Indeed. Always remember the axiom “Government never fixes anything. The less of it the better.”
“Clean” shouldn’t even be on the list. It will just be used by the Eco-Nazis to mean “wind and solar.”
Worse, “clean” can be interpreted to mean sanitary, or free of whatever any hack thinks is dirty or disruptive.
While this is very good news it is to our everlasting shame that we need a law to force our government to put reliability, affordability and safety before political expediency.
…and this is supposed to help how?
Clean???
How about Abundant, Affordable, Reliable. and Dispatchable?
I could be wrong, but my understanding of reliable included dispatchable.
Which definition of clean are you interested in.
I suggest one aspect of clean is the water or whatever is needed to clean the solar panels and turbine blades be included in the definition.
I also suggest CO2 is not dirty, is not a pollutant.
Hopefully the reports give concise definitions of affordable, reliable, and clean.
There is nothing wrong with coal-fired electricity generation, properly equipped to clean up the flue gas.
My point: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR!
There is no need to legislate something new about “clean” when the Clean Air Act – properly implemented as originally intended – already authorizes limits on emissions of SOx, NOx, particulates.
Thank you for listening.
The definition of pollutant needs to be concise, exact, and scientific.
Pollutant as originally viewed back then was based on biology, not long term weather forecasts. It was also constrained to the USA, not the planet.
Sorry, but wind and solar will never be an “important” part of our electric generation. No amount of “development” of their “technology” will ever make up for their fatal flaw – intermittency.
They are worse-than-useless. Parasites on the grid, not contributors. The do nothing but make the grid LESS RELIABLE and MORE EXPENSIVE.
AGW:
Yep!
And since China has a near monopoly on much of the strategic minerals and rare earths that go into batteries, wind turbines and solar panels, does it make any sense to have our electric grid dependent on our greatest economic & geostrategic competitor?