Three Emergency Alerts This Summer Made the Case for Craig Unit 1
On September 25, 2026, the Department of Energy ordered the coal-fired Craig Unit 1 to stay available to run through December 25. It is the fourth 90-day order under the Federal Power Act’s Section 202(c) authority, and the first for Craig Unit 1 since the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a similar order for […]
Colorado’s Renewable Milestone, Revisited
On July 9, 2026, I wrote an article for the Independence Institute breaking down the math behind Colorado’s renewable energy milestone in Q1 2026 and explaining why it is largely driven by the Comanche 3 coal outage, rather than a surge in wind and solar generation. For Coloradans, it’s worth checking if milestones like these […]
NERC 2026 State of Reliability Bears Warnings for Colorado
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) 2026 State of Reliability report contains lessons for Colorado’s electricity sector. While the grid as a whole “continues to deliver reliable electric service,” challenges are mounting thanks in part to the “declining availability of aging combustion generation.” NERC’s report finds that power plants failed more in 2025, with the fleet-wide forced outage rate climbing to 9.2 percent against “historical norms rarely exceeding” 8 percent. Coal-fired […]