Horizon Climate Initiative

📢💡Fresh data alert!🔎👀 RMI, a key partner in our work to challenge uneconomic fossil fuels, has crunched the numbers on the health impacts tied directly to the months when utilities operate unprofitable coal-fired power plants at a loss, when cheaper resources are readily available. Check out the updated Economic Dispatch Dashboard tool below! In addition to inflating electricity rates, this common practice of burning coal for power that isn't needed created public health impacts that cost communities nearly $250 billion between 2015 and 2023. While fossil fuel companies and utility companies profit off of running coal plants more often than makes any economic sense, communities face energy burdens and health burdens they can't afford.

“If economics carried the day, we wouldn’t be here.” - Jill Tauber, Earthjustice Dispatches from the fight for economic dispatch: Check out our latest blog! We are so grateful for experts and consumer advocates Logan Atkinson Burke with Alliance for Affordable Energy, Joseph Daniel at RMI, Jill, and Julien Dumoulin-Smith and all who joined us for a robust standing-room-only conversation during NYC Climate Week on the work to address unprofitable fossil fuels "jumping the line" and driving up electricity costs.

We’ll be following a fascinating lawsuit filed recently in federal court against the West Virginia Public Service Commission. It seeks to overturn the WV PSC’s direction to electric utilities to run their coal-fired power plants a pre-determined amount, even if it jacks up electricity bills for customers. https://lnkd.in/e3xgVFQY

NY Climate Week 9/25-You’re Invited! Jumping the Line: A Timely Discussion of Fossil Power and Energy Market Manipulation To kick off your Wednesday of Climate Week, please join Horizon Climate Initiative and our partners as we examine a hidden linchpin of fossil fuel use and driver of high electricity costs. Every hour of every day, electric utilities and grid operators across the U.S. decide which power generators will supply the electricity we all use. Remarkably often, the result is fossil fuel-fired power plants running when cleaner and cheaper energy resources could be used instead. Every year, these hour-by-hour decisions add up to millions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution, billions of dollars in electricity bills, and stymied renewable energy growth. Come hear from our speakers and add your voice to a spirited conversation exploring where this market manipulation happens, why it occurs, what’s at stake, and how we can end it. Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Managing Director, U.S. Power, Utilities, & Clean Energy Research, Jefferies LLC (Moderator) Jill Tauber, Vice President of Litigation for Climate and Energy, Earthjustice (Panelist) Logan Atkinson Burke, Executive Director, Alliance for Affordable Energy (Panelist) Joseph Daniel, Principal, Carbon-Free Electricity, RMI (Panelist) Registration required. Because we will have limited seating capacity, we encourage early registration. Light breakfast provided. In-person only.

We highly recommend this episode of My Climate Journey—with thanks to Joe for the shout-out to HCI! Together with our partners, we are ending wasteful practices that favor fossil fuel generation at the expense of consumers and clean energy.

Experts at Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Union of Concerned Scientists, RMI, and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) spoke with Energy News Network about the impacts of utilities operating coal plants at a loss, like skewed energy markets and renewable energy curtailment. Join us during NYC Climate Week to dig in on this little-known climate problem perpetuating coal-fired power, driving up electricity costs, and hamstringing renewable energy--and learn about the work advocates are doing to rein in uneconomic utility operations: https://lnkd.in/gCPu9PHW

Save the Date - 9/25/2024 - New York Climate Week Jumping the Line: A Lively Discussion of Fossil Power and Energy Market Manipulation             The path to a clean-energy future has numerous hurdles, but one is often overlooked. Please join Horizon Climate Initiative and our partners as we examine the price we pay when electric utilities run their fossil fuel-fired power plants when cleaner and cheaper energy resources could be used instead. These hidden hour by hour moves add up to millions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution and billions of dollars in electricity bills.   Learn about this often unrecognized electricity market manipulation and the steps that can be taken now to end a widespread practice undercutting renewable energy deployment and adding to electricity costs.   Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 8:30-10:00amET, 919 3rd Ave, New York, NY. In-person only.     Let us know you're interested in attending!

ICYMI, new analysis by HCI grantee Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Grid Strategies LLC found that coal plants "allowed to run regardless of economics in MISO’s market" over the last three years: 🤒🫁 Increased air pollution across the central U.S. 💰🤑 Cost consumers $1.1 billion more than they should have paid. 💨🚫 Blocked "the equivalent of a huge wind farm" from powering the grid. Read more from E&E News:

💡New report: Coal plants operating uneconomically are driving up costs and pollution while kicking cheap, renewable energy off the grid. The analysis, conducted by HCI grantee Sustainable FERC Project in partnership with Grid Strategies LLC, analyzed uneconomic coal over 2021-2023 in MISO, the Midwest regional grid. Key findings include: 🏭  Consumers paid $1 billion to lose out on 3.8 million megawatt hours (mWh) of wind power. That's enough clean energy to power all residential households in Des Moines for more than three years--displaced by overpriced coal. ⚡ Nearly a quarter of all wind curtailment was driven by money-losing coal plants skewing the markets and cutting the line. If that sounds ridiculous and wasteful, that's because it is. Read more from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):

We say no. Consumers are paying more than they should, and it's why HCI is committed to bending down the arc of greenhouse gas pollution by ending practices that favor fossil fuel generation at the expense of customers and clean energy.