<[link removed]> Another Year Draws To A Close As we prepare to say goodbye (and good riddance?) to 2021, we should pause and consider the missteps of the past 12 months and the path ahead. We saw the rise and fall of CEPP. Another international UN climate conference came and went. FERC released a White Paper <[link removed]> on Energy and Ancillary Services Market Reforms, waded waist-deep into the debate on transmission planning, and has begun to look at the troubling behavior of monopoly utilities <[link removed]> . And the Build Back Better Plan hit a rock West Virginia-sized rock named Manchin. The takeaway for many inside the Beltway is that the chance of Congress passing big federal climate legislation is nil. But while government mostly failed, markets succeeded. Power generation from renewable energy sources <[link removed]> continued to set records and solar <[link removed]> became the cheapest source of electricity in history. Residential solar had one of the biggest growth years yet, with Florida, Arizona, and Texas leading the charge. Consumer demand for solar is stronger than ever, with the residential market expected to end the year nearly 20 percent larger than the previous year. Congress doesn’t do "big" well. Its fallback approach is to throw money at a problem instead of good policy. Congress also rarely likes to revisit existing laws and regulations. But targeted course corrections to the regulatory regime and additional market reforms promise a better path toward encouraging private investment and clean energy deployment than large, costly federal spending programs. Technology is changing so rapidly that it’s impossible to know what the generation mix will look like in five years — let alone in 30 years. Markets can react to changing technologies, resource availability, and consumer preferences far faster than the government. That brings us to today — and after all the dead ends and false starts — the coming of the new year offers renewed opportunity to make the case that competitive markets, including the reduction of regulatory barriers, are crucial to advancing the transition to cleaner energy in ways that are fair, affordable, and inclusive of consumer preferences. Market-based solutions and smarter regulation can be achieved with bipartisan support, which means solutions that are more viable and durable than might otherwise seem possible in the current political environment. The time to put consumer preferences and competitive markets first is overdue. There have been a few analyses released of late supporting the argument for increased competitive markets. Two such reports led by Joshua Rhodes at IdeaSmiths and the University of Texas Austin, including a report for the Energy Choice Coalition on the environmental benefits of competitive markets <[link removed]> . The other is a scorecard ranking the competitiveness of all 50 states <[link removed]> that Rhodes developed with Landon Stevens at the Conservative Energy Network <[link removed]> . I encourage everyone to check out this online discussion <[link removed]> from November with Rhodes and Stevens, along with Travis Fisher of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council <[link removed]> and Devin Hartman of the R Street Institute <[link removed]> . The webinar offers a deeper dive into the current debate around climate and energy policy in Congress and strategies aligning it with policies that increase competition and market access. Nick Loris at C3 Solutions <[link removed]> , a nonprofit that advocates for economic growth and a healthy environment, released “Free Economies are Clean Economies <[link removed]> ” earlier this year examining the correlation between economic freedom, limited government, open markets, private property rights, and environmental performance. Rather than regulation and excessive spending proposals like the Green New Deal, Loris outlines how capitalism is not the problem, but the solution. This year saw the launch of Dave Roberts’ Volts newsletter <[link removed]> and podcast <[link removed]> and the independent journalism of Canary Media <[link removed]> . Our friends over at the Conservative Energy Network delivered the UtilityPlaybook.com <[link removed]> to track the ways monopoly utilities abuse their influence and power to block competition and burden ratepayers. This year also ushered in the work of the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute <[link removed]> tracking utility corruption and dirty tricks. Once again in 2021, polls <[link removed]> showed that consumers support clean energy policies that are centered on increasing competition <[link removed]> and allowing markets and private businesses to provide solutions. More reports and advocacy <[link removed]> are on the way. All of the groups and individuals mentioned so far are part of the vanguard of policy experts advancing competitive solutions. (Check out this conversation between R Street’s energy team on the new landscape for clean energy policy <[link removed]> .) There are others too, including Reason Foundation. <[link removed]> I encourage you to support them all in the New Year. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday season, Robert Dillon <[link removed]> ECC Report: Assessment of the Emissions Performance of Wholesale Electricity Markets <[link removed]> The Energy Choice Coalition (ECC) released a report <[link removed]> in November on the environmental benefits of competition in electricity markets. The report outlines a proven solution that should be part of the U.S. policy framework to address carbon emissions and increase the deployment of clean energy. The report presents a data-driven analysis on the correlation between the existence of competition in electricity markets and reductions in carbon emissions from the power sector. Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> Measuring The State of Competition In The Electricity Sector <[link removed]> In September, The University of Texas published "The State of Electric Competition in the United States of America," evaluating the competitiveness of different states’ electricity sectors. The national "Electric Competition Scorecard" <[link removed]> ranked states based on how competitive their electricity markets are and offered recommendations for removing barriers to entry for new power providers. Each state was scored based on 10 different factors related to a wide range of issues to determine competitiveness, including the existence of wholesale and retail electricity markets, requirements for RFPs in vertically integrated states, data access policies for customers and third parties, compensation policies for distributed generation, and the percentage of power plants that are privately owned. The Conservative Energy Network <[link removed]> hosted a webinar with University of Texas scholar Joshua Rhodes on the scorecard. Watch it here <[link removed]> . Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> Study Finds Competitive Markets Good for the Environment And Consumers <[link removed]> States with competitive electricity markets saw lower energy prices, more energy infrastructure investment to improve efficiency and reliability, and greater emission reductions compared to monopoly states, according to a study <[link removed]> released this week by the Pacific Research Institute. “Residents and businesses lose out when states cling to outdated government-mandated electricity monopolies,” said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the California-based free-market think tank. “Customers in monopoly states pay higher energy prices, see less effective infrastructure investment, fewer emission reductions, and endure less reliable power systems.” The report, aptly entitled “Affordable and Reliable,” found that competition reduces prices for consumers. Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> FERC Looks At The Future of Grid Services <[link removed]> The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a report <[link removed]> on Sept. 7 on potential market design reforms to improve the operational flexibility of electricity markets as they adapt to changes in the resource mix and demand loads brought about by the transition to renewable energy and the rise of ancillary services. Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> Market Design Will Determine Whether Electrifying the Economy Serves Consumer Interests <[link removed]> The Biden administration’s ambitious goal <[link removed]> of running America’s economy on 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035 is accelerating the shift to renewable energy and sparking a debate among policymakers over how best to encourage the clean energy transition without having costs fall entirely on consumers. While the war of words between the fossil fuel and renewables camps has garnered the lion’s share of the attention, less has been paid to the importance of modernizing transmission infrastructure and the role of competition in incentivizing investment in a cleaner, more efficient and affordable power system. Incentives matter when it comes to creating effective public policy, and a market model that encourages power generators and service providers to compete for customers is a far more efficient way to deliver the low-cost, clean energy and advanced technologies that consumers demand. Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> Energy Choice Coalition Joins Call For Dedicated Program at DOE to Support State Efforts to Expand Competitive Markets <[link removed]> 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.” Read More <[link removed]> <[link removed]> The Benefits for Restructured Electricity Markets <[link removed]> The rapid evolution of the electricity sector in the United States can offer numerous benefits to consumers while also addressing society’s environmental concerns. The rise of independent energy suppliers and the advancement of information technology are transforming the way we generate and manage our electricity use, allowing consumers to access more affordable, diverse, efficient, and cleaner sources of energy. More than a dozen states <[link removed]> have restructured their electricity markets to some degree in order to give consumers, large and small, a greater say in the type of energy they use every day to power their homes and offices. Proper policy design is crucial for ensuring that end users have the freedom to choose their service providers and are adequately protected from opportunistic business practices. Texas has gone the furthest <[link removed]> in creating a dynamic retail marketplace by quarantining its legacy monopoly utilities to the operation of transmission infrastructure only. Customers can choose from hundreds of service providers based on their individual preferences for the lowest cost, efficiency, or renewable generation. In contrast, partially restructured states, which allow the old monopoly utility to continue to sell electricity directly to consumers, have often seen competition stifled. Read More <[link removed]> The Energy Choice Coalition is a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization committed to establishing and maintaining competition and innovation in electricity markets. To find out more about energy choice, check out our website <[link removed]> . Contact: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Energy Choice Coalition, 25 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 820, Washington, DC 20001, United States Powered by Squarespace <[link removed]> Unsubscribe <[link removed]>