API: EPA Power Plant Rule Fails to Consider Grid Reliability Amid Growing Power Demand

 WASHINGTON, April 25, 2024 – The American Petroleum Institute (API) today released the following statement from API Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Dustin Meyer on EPA’s final power plant regulations. 

"At a time of rapid energy demand growth, we need policies that harness all of America’s resources, including natural gas and renewables, to power our future economy and help ensure energy is affordable for families and businesses. We remain concerned that EPA’s final rule fails to properly consider grid reliability and the need for new natural gas plants to maintain that reliability. The administration should instead focus on removing barriers to building new generation capacity and fixing our broken permitting process to allow for the development of critical infrastructure – including carbon capture and hydrogen technologies – to keep the lights on for the American people.”

Natural gas supplies more than 40% of electricity generation in America, helping the U.S. lead the way in CO₂ emissions reductions through fuel switching in the power sector and complementing renewable resources. 

According to IEA, electricity demand from U.S. data centers will grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, increasing from around 4% of total U.S. electricity demand in 2022 to almost 6% by 2026. By 2029, McKinsey estimates that US data centers will use 32 gigawatts of electricity – an 88% increase from 2022. That combined with a manufacturing boom will drive load growth of nearly 10% per year in certain regions of the U.S. – a pace not seen in decades. The growing energy needs of manufacturing facilities and data centers mean that our country needs more wind power, more solar power – and more baseload resources like natural gas.

API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports nearly 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our approximately 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 800 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.

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