Paul Bledsoe: In Face of A.I., Permitting Reform for Both Gas and Solar Is Essential
On this week’s broadcast of “Get Real” on RAV, energy and economic policy consultant Paul Bledsoe explains why rising electricity demand means the U.S. needs an all of the above energy strategy RELATED: Paul Bledsoe’s new piece for RealClearEnergy: “U.S. Gas and Renewables Help Buffer Power Consumers From War Costs”
DAVID DESROSIERS, HOST: Paul, this week you wrote a piece for Real Clear Energy that defended keeping wind and solar in the all of above mix. You argue that all of the above energy made us stronger. Can you please bring us into that? PAUL BLEDSOE, ENERGY & ECONOMIC POLICY CONSULTANT: Sure. The truth of the matter is that we need all the energy and electricity sources we can get right now. The huge new demand in electricity in the United States, largely from artificial intelligence data centers, is driving up costs very quickly and it’s part of the affordability crisis. We need every type of electron we can get. And solar in particular has been the go-to energy source over the last two years by utilities because the price is falling. And critically, we can now store much of the renewable energy electricity with new advanced batteries and electricity storage systems. But we really still need natural gas. Natural gas is really the key to the American electricity affordability system. So I support a permanent reform in Congress that increases both new natural gas pipelines and more interstate electricity lines to get cheap renewable energy to the places we need it. We need a new, better electricity system to reduce our prices. Congress needs to act. I’m in a business coalition called the Page Coalition, which is working to help Congress pass permitting reform to reform our system and lower prices. Congress needs to act to make this system better so that all forms of energy can lower consumer prices.
