A new report found forced power outages in this winter's extreme weather only added to "unreliability" in the fossil-fuel sector.

The PJM Interconnection is the electricity market including Pennsylvania and a dozen other states. Coal and gas plant owners' failure to honor their reliability commitments may cost them as much as $2 billion in penalties.

Dennis Wamsted, energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and the report's author, said some states saw rolling blackouts, and PJM used emergency measures to keep the lights on in Pennsylvania. Wamsted argued it all makes the case for renewable energy as an alternative.

"We are an organization that favors the transition to renewables," Wamsted explained. "We think renewable energies like solar, wind, battery storage, are here today. They are reliable today, they are cheaper than fossil fuels, and they also don't pollute the air, and solve, you know, a lot of our climate change problems."

The report noted in the PJM system, with more than 32,000 megawatts of gas and 7,600 megawatts of coal capacity, were offline at the height of the cold, despite substantial capacity payments PJM pays generators to be available at critical times.

Wamsted pointed out hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were left without power because of the severe storm, and customers in the Carolinas and the seven states in the Tennessee Valley Authority service territory saw outages. He noted there were no rolling blackouts in the Keystone State, but notifications were sent to customers to prepare for the possibility of an outage.

"And so they didn't get to the point where they actually had to turn people's lights off," Wamsted recounted. "They were getting close to that in the sort of a warning structure, and they were appealing to customers to, you know, cooperate and help reduce demand. And that actually does work. "

The report showed the problems associated with the outages prompted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to launch a joint inquiry into the events surrounding the December freeze and the performance of the nation's bulk power system.

Montana is a U.S. leader in the growing industry of sustainable aviation fuel. Experts in the field, and in the agricultural sector, hope to see new policies to support its development.

Sustainable aviation fuel can be made from a variety of agricultural inputs, including seed crops, which produce oils processed into fuel with a low-carbon footprint. Industry growth could mean new buyers for ag producers in the state, where Montana Renewables was the highest domestic producer of sustainable aviation fuel last year.

Bruce Fleming, CEO of the company, said China and Brazil are outpacing U.S. growth.

"If we can get our policy figured out, if we can get American innovation going and not fall behind, then we've got solutions here that will benefit the ag sector, particularly the farmers and ranchers," Fleming explained.

In terms of policy, Fleming acknowledged the "goalposts keep moving," because they vary between agencies at the state and federal levels, making it difficult to plan. He hopes to see policies that embrace the SAF innovation, as the nation did for ethanol.

Nicole Rolf, senior director of government affairs for the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, said the opportunity for farmers to grow and market new commodities is enticing, but she will be watching for tax credits and other policies to support producers.

"How do we make sure that we put the right incentives in place so that we're truly using American-grown feedstocks, and crops and commodities, to feed these sustainable aviation-fuel suppliers?" Rolf asked.

The industry sees both challenges and benefits in Montana. For instance, there are currently no local oilseed crushers, so farmers must ship seeds for processing out-of-state. Rolf pointed out Montana is prepared to ship the finished product by rail and other means, as it already does for other energy products.

Utility providers foresee a big rise in electricity demand which could lead to double-digit rate hikes if it is met with new natural gas-fired power plants, according to a new report.

PJM is the nonprofit independent system managing the power grid in Pennsylvania and 12 other states. It forecasts the need for 67 more gigawatts by 2039.

Sean O'Leary, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, said relying on natural gas for the increased power demand could drive up Pennsylvania's rates faster than the national average. He cautioned addressing the climate effects of increased carbon emissions later could make costs skyrocket even more.

"It costs almost as much to retrofit a gas-fired power plant so that it won't emit greenhouse gases as it costs to build the plant in the first place," O'Leary pointed out. "Right now, Pennsylvanians get about 60% of all of their electricity from natural gas."

O'Leary noted PJM anticipates needing around 100 gigawatts of new capacity, combining 30 gigawatts of retiring coal and older gas plants with additional demand, equating to about two-thirds of the system's current generation capacity.

The Institute's report recommended prioritizing renewable resources and called on PJM to reevaluate its demand projections, since it has a history of overestimating future needs. He added more than 90% of PJM's upcoming projects are solar, wind and battery storage, which underscores the growing role of renewable energy and efficiency measures.

"I think in total, there are more than 90 gigawatts, currently, of renewable resources currently queued up and wanting the opportunity to provide energy to PJM," O'Leary reported. "That should be the first place that PJM turns."

He added states like Texas have made enough progress on renewables, solar and wind power now supply almost one-third of the state's electricity. The report showed the growth in renewable energy has also seen rates come down significantly, surpassing Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, where it was once thought the natural gas boom lowered energy costs.

A new report contended Alabama needs to invest more in energy efficiency so it can do more to lower power bills and curb the effects of climate change.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's report, "Energy Efficiency in the Southeast," said Alabama trails other states in utility company energy efficiency investments. It found this leads not only to higher energy bills for customers, but increased carbon emissions contributing to the warming climate.

Eddy Moore, decarbonization director for the alliance, said there are multiple benefits to prioritizing energy efficiency.

"If we take energy efficiency seriously, there will be everyday cost savings, there will be delays of expensive investments," Moore outlined. "There's also a reliability benefit."

The report found utilities like Duke Energy in North and South Carolina outperform others in the Southeast, with Alabama Power at the bottom of the list.

Heather Pohnan, senior energy policy manager for the alliance, said the barriers to energy efficiency in Alabama include limited funding, minimal program investment and challenges in reaching low-income and rental housing markets. She noted federal funding, from sources like the Inflation Reduction Act, could be a substantial resource.

"The IRA includes tens of billions of dollars for energy efficiency," Pohnan pointed out. "It was a massive investment that includes tax credits, consumer rebates, loan programs and competitive grant opportunities."

She noted Alabama has yet to apply for key resources, like Home Energy Rebate funds. The future of the funding is unclear with the new leadership headed to the White House. But the report argued energy efficiency will be essential to bolster Alabama's power grid against the rising electricity demands of data centers and population growth and to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events.