Red States Have Reliable Power Because They Embrace an All-of-the-Above Strategy

By Greg Brophy

Sometimes the debate over U.S. energy policy feels more like a shouting match, instead of a factual discussion about how to meet the nation’s rapidly growing needs.

In one corner, there’s the push for 100% renewables. In the other corner, it’s almost all about oil and gas.

But outside the competing echo chambers on the left and the right, a quiet success story is unfolding in America’s rural – and yes, more politically conservative – communities.

It turns out that keeping the lights on isn’t about picking a side. It’s about picking all the energy sources that can deliver affordable and reliable electricity based on local conditions.

That was the major finding of a new report issued by The Western Way, a non-profit that seeks pro-market solutions to energy and environmental challenges, on power grid reliability in rural America.

The report reviewed 10 rural and conservative-leaning states – Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. It concluded the power grids in those states are 2 to 7 times more reliable than the national average, according to data on electrical outages from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

What is their secret? It isn’t a singular reliance on coal or natural gas, nor is it a blind rush toward renewables and battery storage. The data reveals that there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Instead, these states are harnessing a range of energy sources to keep their power grids reliable.

Consider just two of the states analyzed in The Western Way report – South Dakota and Arizona – which have some of the most reliable power grids in the country.

In South Dakota, the number one source of electricity is wind (58%), followed by hydropower (22%) and natural gas (11%), with coal and other sources making up the remainder. When working together, these sources make South Dakota’s grid the 2nd most reliable in the country.

But in Arizona, the top source of electricity is natural gas (45%), followed by nuclear (27%) and solar (13%), with coal and hydropower making up most of the balance. Arizona also has more than 2 gigawatts of battery storage capacity, which allows solar power generated during the day to be used after the sun goes down.

Despite looking nothing like South Dakota, the Arizona power grid is also highly reliable, ranked 3rd in the country – and the reliability difference between the two states is less than 0.001%.

Two very different models for keeping the lights on. Both highly effective.

But that’s not all. The Western Way report also finds that the Trump administration’s policy on energy is a lot more nuanced than the mainstream media would have you believe.

Back in July, the U.S. Department of Energy published a study outlining what it will take to keep America’s power grid stable by the end of the decade if the nation’s rising appetite for energy – led by data centers and the reshoring of manufacturing – continues.

The study called for the continued operation of coal and natural gas-fired power plants that have previously been slated for retirement. While most media coverage of the DOE study focused on that recommendation, there was much, much more to the story.

Keeping older plants running longer would close less than a third of the looming reliability gap. The rest of the gap would have to be closed with a range of different energy sources, including 187 gigawatts of solar, wind and battery storage, according to the DOE.

For scale, those projections would increase U.S. renewable electricity capacity by around 40% and the nation’s battery storage by more than 80%, according to September data from the EIA.

The lesson from states like South Dakota and Arizona is that energy decisions cannot be made based on broad-brush national arguments.

Yes, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress opposed federal tax subsidies for wind and solar and started to phase them out. But tax policy is a completely separate conversation from the engineering reality of keeping a regional grid running during a blizzard or a heatwave.

As we face a future of higher demand, no energy source should be sidelined because of rhetoric that doesn’t reflect conditions on the ground. A stable power grid requires a mix of energy sources working together as efficiently as possible – in other words, “all of the above.”

If we truly care about keeping the lights on, let’s stop fighting over the “right” kind of energy and embrace the idea of building a grid that uses it all.

Greg Brophy is a former Republican state senator from Colorado and a fourth-generation corn and melon farmer. He serves as the Rural Energy Network Director of The Western Way.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.