America is running out of power.
In July, the Department of Energy confirmed what many experts have warned for years. Their report found that 104 gigawatts of reliable, dispatchable electricity, mainly fueled by coal and natural gas, are set to retire by 2030.
What’s replacing it?
Just 22 gigawatts of new firm capacity.
Let’s put that in plain English: Power plants that run around the clock are being shut down and replaced by sources that only function when the weather cooperates.
Unfortunately, this is the inevitable result of a four-year effort by the Biden administration to dismantle our most reliable energy sources, layering on regulation after regulation, choking off investment and forcing Americans to gamble on expensive, intermittent alternatives.
The problem? Those calling for the elimination of abundant traditional fuels, such as coal and natural gas, have yet to offer a credible alternative that doesn’t put our energy grid, along with everything that depends on it, in serious jeopardy.
Coal and natural gas provide 60% of our electricity.
Wind and solar? Just 14%.
We don’t have to guess what happens when a nation bets heavily on unreliable energy. In April of this year, Spain’s power company, Red Eléctrica, proudly announced that renewable energy was generating enough electricity to meet its demand, with more than 70% of its power coming from solar panels and wind turbines.
Less than two weeks later, Spain and Portugal experienced an 18-hour power outage, affecting nearly 57 million people. While engineers always find a series of causes for a major blackout, overreliance on intermittent generators can’t be ignored as a significant risk factor.
We cannot let the same fate befall America.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources recently held a hearing on the soaring demand for energy and the challenges the U.S. faces in meeting that demand. When asked what would happen if we gave up fossil fuels, Peter Huntsman, CEO of the Huntsman Corporation, didn’t mince words: “National suicide.”
He further stated that to meet the growing electricity demand, “We need to be building out the baseload power, which has got to come back to natural gas. That’s going to be the cleanest, the fastest, it’s the most economical means of having a reliable baseload across the board. We’ve been through Europe. We’ve been through all these continents that have tried seven different ways of making electrons, and they’re virtually bankrupt. It doesn’t work.”
He’s right. The stakes are higher than ever, and our nation is in dire straits if we don’t make some significant changes.
The United States is locked in a global competition with China and other adversarial nations over artificial intelligence. AI will reshape everything as we know it, from our economy to our national security and our position on the world stage.
China understands this and is moving aggressively, investing billions in energy infrastructure to support its own AI.
America cannot afford to fall behind. If we can’t meet our own demand, we will inevitably surrender our position as the global energy superpower.
That’s why I worked closely with Utah’s leaders to ensure our state’s energy priorities were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Our goals are simple: Cut red tape, unleash private investment in domestic energy production and keep electric bills affordable for working families.
The changing regulatory environment under President Trump is already having an impact in Utah.
Hunter and Huntington, two coal-fired power plants in Utah, were previously slated for retirement. Thanks to recent changes in the regulatory environment, those plans have changed.
“The reason for that is, primarily, the changes that have happened recently in regulatory requirements at the state and federal levels,” said David Eskelsen, a Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson. As a result, the company no longer foresees either plant closing within the next 20 years.
America’s strength, security and prosperity depend on abundant and affordable energy.
With President Trump back in the White House and Republicans leading both chambers of Congress, we’re in a position to restore American energy dominance and secure a stronger future for every American.
