2025 FERC, DOE Outlook: Surging demand growth to drive power-sector agenda
President-elect Donald Trump, set to be sworn in on Monday, is returning to the White House amid surging electricity demand, partly driven by planned data centers, new manufacturing facilities and electrification of the building and transportation sectors…
At the same time, there are more barriers to new power supply than probably during any previous era, such as state policies that make it hard to build infrastructure, according to Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, a market-oriented think tank. “You just cannot reconcile massive barriers to new supply with growing demand, and the situation that you inherit in the power sector is also the same set of conditions that constrain decarbonization,” he said.
Hartman contends there is significant overlap between Republican priorities for lowering energy costs and boosting reliability with Democratic desires for developing clean energy. Those goals, for example, can all be facilitated by new transmission, he said…
Hartman said he expects FERC will move ahead with regulations for dynamic line ratings — “a great candidate for a low cost way to quickly put downward pressure on rates” — and efforts to spur interregional transmission as well as implementing its Order 1920 on transmission planning and cost allocation…
Given how important FERC is to the U.S. economy, it’s unlikely the agency will undergo staffing cuts, according to Hartman. However, some staff are exploring new jobs, he said…
Trump didn’t leave a strong legacy on energy and environmental policy from his first term, with many decisions being overturned in court or efforts starting so late they were easily reversed by Biden, according to R Street’s Hartman.
“I am very curious to see if you have a much more pragmatic EPA agenda,” he said.