The intense heat wave battering the United States pushes America’s electric grid to the brink and could lead to power outages. But House Republicans offer a policy change that bolsters the grid and helps protect the public from blackout threats.

Communities across much of the country face scorching temperatures, prompting power companies to take notice and act accordingly.

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In my part of Virginia, local power companies affiliated with the Tennessee Valley Authority are encouraging their customers to reduce electricity use. This request appears to be based on an announcement from the TVA.

Alerts of possible breaking points in America’s electric grid are not unique to the TVA and are, unfortunately, becoming more and more frequent. 

The Friday before Memorial Day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency order directing the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the Midwest grid operator, to keep a coal-fired power plant in Michigan in operation. These emergency actions are authorized for up to 90 days at a time under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act.

Wright issued the order to minimize the risk of blackouts ahead of the high electricity demand expected this summer.

MISO runs north to south from Manitoba and Michigan down to Louisiana and a portion of East Texas. 

Notwithstanding keeping the plant in Michigan open, the New Orleans metro area suffered a large and unexpected power outage during Memorial Day weekend. At the blackout’s peak, more than 100,000 customers lost electricity.

Utilities knew high demand was likely that weekend, but they had no extra power capacity. When one plant went down, their customers were plunged into darkness.

Reports confirmed that two of the region’s nuclear power plants lost connection to the grid. One was due to expected maintenance, while the other was unexpected. Constrained by a lack of energy supply, grid operators cut power to customers in New Orleans.

Entergy, an electric utility company in the region, said that the forced outages directed by MISO were done to prevent a larger-scale and more prolonged power outage from affecting the electric grid.

This blackout was not the only major power outage in recent memory.

On April 28, Portugal and Spain witnessed the worst blackout in their history, affecting 55 million people, per the Guardian.

Airports shut down, cars drove on streets without traffic lights, hospitals resorted to backup generators, and some people were stuck in elevators.

The Iberian Peninsula blackout continues to be investigated. Lots of finger-pointing is going on between Spain’s grid operator, the government, and plant operators. But it is interesting to note that on April 16, Spain reported its first weekday when its national power grid was 100% reliant on renewable power.

A coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Coincidentally, in a recent Virginia Tech press release, professor and Power and Energy Center Director Ali Mehrizi-Sani highlighted how the systems that control these clean energy sources are more susceptible to blackouts.

As parts of the world transition to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, the lack of seamless grid adaptation to the use of these sources, as illustrated by the blackouts in Spain and Portugal and by experts like Mehrizi-Sani, threatens the destabilization of electric grids and could lead to more blackouts.

Leftist policies that attempted to gut our grid’s reliance on fossil fuels and convert to renewables have pushed America’s electric grid to the brink.

Federal policies, like the Obama-era “War on Coal” and the Biden administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, shunning reliable baseload forms of energy like coal and natural gas have made our electric grid more vulnerable to failure. 

But House Republicans offer a policy change that levels the playing field and openly welcomes baseload power.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act curtails some Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, which disincentivize coal and natural gas power plants. We maintain the incentives for nuclear because of its significant potential for baseload power.

The bill also creates an energy project insurance pool to help protect energy investors from permits being revoked for coal, oil, critical minerals, natural gas, or nuclear installations.

This derisking compensation fund will make it harder for federal policies to discourage and phase out these reliable energy sources.

As extreme summer heat continues to pose the threat of power outages, we must secure and equip our electric grid with reliable energy solutions.

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We do not need to follow in Spain’s footsteps and make Iberian Peninsula-style blackouts the norm.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act helps the public avoid blackout threats by instituting reliable forms of baseload power.

Morgan Griffith represents Virginia’s 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.