WASHINGTON – The Energy Choice Coalition joined several peer organizations in urging Congress to create a dedicated program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (DOE-OE) to provide technical and financial assistance to states interested in expanding organized wholesale electricity markets.
“The Biden administration’s ambitious goal of running America’s economy on 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035 is accelerating the debate among policymakers on how best to encourage the clean energy transition without having costs fall entirely on consumers,” said Robert Dillon, Executive Director of the Energy Choice Coalition. “While generation resources have garnered the lion’s share of the attention, the Energy Choice Coalition believes more attention needs to be paid to the importance of transmission infrastructure improvements and the role of competition in designing markets capable of achieving our national energy and climate goals. A dedicated program at the Department of Energy will provide states with the tools needed to expand competition in electricity markets and hasten the transition to cleaner energy and deliver the greatest possible benefits to consumers.”
The letter calls on the federal government to join states in advancing markets and building needed infrastructure. It notes that with the “renewed interest in expanding organized wholesale electricity markets, led by states across the West and Southeast, now is the time for Congress to help ensure that the benefits of an interconnected regional grid, as well as organized wholesale electricity markets, can be realized in all parts of the country.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.