Why states are threatening to leave PJM — and why they probably won’t

There’s nothing like a shared frustration to bring people together. For a group of Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states, that’s rising power prices on the grid operated by PJM Interconnection. Both Republican and Democratic governors are calling out PJM’s management and demanding change — a repeat of a cycle that’s been going on for years and has no easy solution.

The U.S. is home to seven regional transmission organizations and independent system operators that are each responsible for managing power transmission and operating energy markets among utilities in their area. PJM is the largest, serving more than 65 million customers across D.C., Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and 10 other states. And for years, leaders in those states have said it’s not doing a great job.

The crux of the issue is rising electricity prices. This summer, PJM announced a new record in its annual capacity auction, which it uses to secure power resources for the grid. Prices hit $16.1 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2023, Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reported in July.

There are a few reasons for the spike in costs. For one, PJM expects that it will need a ton more power-generation capacity in the coming years as data centers come online — though experts dispute just how big the AI energy-demand bubble will actually be. PJM does have a massive backlog of clean-power and battery projects looking to connect to the grid and meet that demand. But the operator hasn’t undertaken reforms that critics say could speed interconnections, and is instead campaigning to keep expensive, dirty fossil-fuel power plants online.

PJM member states’ longstanding dispute with the grid operator reemerged this week as 11 of their governors met in Philadelphia. There, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin both said they would leave PJM if states don’t get a bigger role in the grid operator’s governance.

“This is a crisis of not having enough power, and it is a crisis in confidence,” Youngkin said. ​“It’s this crisis that demands real reform, real reform immediately — and at the top of the list is that states must have a real say.”

PJM President and CEO Manu Asthana acknowledged that his organization needs to take cost-cutting steps like improving its load forecasting and interconnection processes, but he also put the onus on states to better their own infrastructure siting and permitting rules.

Washington Analysis researcher Rob Rains is doubtful that states will follow through and depart PJM. He said doing so could actually cost customers more in the short term, as the states may have to negotiate their own power procurement at rates even higher than what PJM has secured. Rains predicts that instead of cutting ties with the grid operator, governors will pull other levers to pressure PJM to establish stronger power-market safeguards to keep prices low. Meanwhile, analysts at ClearView Energy Partners suggest states should keep up their push to get more electricity generation developed as soon as possible.

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Trump stands alone at the U.N. climate summit

The U.S. set itself apart from the rest of the world at the United Nations’ climate summit this week, and not in a good way. On Wednesday, around 120 countries announced new emissions-reduction plans and climate commitments. That included China, the world’s top carbon polluter, which declared it would aim to cut emissions at least 7% from its peak by 2035. New pledges also came from other major emitters, including the European Union, and from countries with smaller populations and lower gross domestic product.

But the U.S. wasn’t among them. Instead, in a speech on Tuesday, President Donald Trump railed against all things green, clean, and climate-friendly. Climate change is ​“the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” Trump said — a scientifically unsound statement, to say the least.

The summit came just days after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the Paris climate agreement is at risk of ​“collapsing” and that countries needed to ramp up their emissions goals to get things back on track.

Utilities are failing on climate, Sierra Club says

For the past four years, the Sierra Club has annually graded the U.S.’s biggest utilities on their clean-energy progress. The marks haven’t been stellar, but utilities were at least taking steps in the right direction. That is, until this year, when the Sierra Club granted utilities a collective ​“F,” Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reports.

The ​“Dirty Truth” report examined 75 of the nation’s biggest utilities to see whether they intend to close their coal plants by 2030, whether they plan to build new gas plants, and how much clean energy they expect to build by 2035. In a spot of good news, 65% of utilities have increased their clean-energy deployment plans since 2021. But they’ve slid backward on fossil fuels, increasing their intended gas-plant additions and walking back plans to shut down coal plants.

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Clean energy news to know this week

You say you want a Revolution? A federal judge lets the Revolution Wind offshore project continue construction in a ruling that signals the Trump administration may have trouble defending its attacks on other already-approved wind farms in court. (Canary Media)

Endangerment fight continues: Every Democratic U.S. senator signs on to a letter opposing the Trump administration’s attempt to rescind the endangerment finding, which establishes that greenhouse gases harm human health, while Republican senators urge the administration to repeal it. (The Hill, Kentucky Lantern)

A clear path forward: Glassmaking for windows, beverage bottles, and other products relies on high heat, typically supplied by fossil fuels, but some global manufacturers are exploring alternatives powered by electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels. (Canary Media)

Turbines keep on turnin’: Nearly a decade after the Block Island offshore wind farm began delivering power, residents of the Rhode Island vacation destination say the five turbines have brought them cleaner, quieter power. (New York Times)

“Motherfucking wind farms”: A viral ad promoting offshore wind development featuring Samuel L. Jackson shows how comedy can bring climate change information to everyday audiences — if it’s not silenced under the Trump administration. (Canary Media)

Heat pumps straight ahead: A coalition of states releases a road map for driving widespread adoption of electric heat pumps as they look to cut emissions from fossil-fuel heating systems. (Canary Media)

From the ground up: In 2014, the northeastern Iowa city of West Union became among the first in the country to install a municipal geothermal network; today, the community is saving money and serving as a model for other cities. (Inside Climate News)

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