Energy policy at House @EnergyCommerce Committee. Texpat working to defeat the climate crisis. @EvergreenAction @NARUC alum. Views my own β‘οΈπ³οΈβππ²
Washington, DC
Joined September 2011
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Kelly Clarkson, please drive to DC and visit Gemini Wine Bar, and feel free to make any sort of observation about their pricing, the staffβs sense of urgency, the humiliating way youβre forced to order and wait for the food β whatever comes to mind for you.
Charles Harper retweeted
Affordability vs. climate is a false choice, and 11 states are already proving it.
Cheaper power. More homes. Cheaper ways to get around. Less pollution.
New from Evergreen Collaborative, a cross-state playbook for legislators, govs, and regulators: π
evergreencollaborative.com/pβ¦
Charles Harper retweeted
ERCOT's "connect and manage" model has moved non-firm generator interconnection to the center of reform debates. Less examined: most US regions instead offer a non-firm option called Energy Resource Interconnection Service (ERIS). Has it worked?
Iβm pleased to share two new companion preprints I co-authored on this topic in my capacity @DukeU with Prof. Dalia Patino-Echeverri, @whgorman, Fredrich Kahrl, Joachim Seel, & @rand_joseph. Together, the papers provide the most comprehensive assessment of ERIS to date: the first statistically robust empirical comparison of ERIS and NRIS outcomes, paired with a systematic review of how ERIS is implemented.
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Drawing on a novel dataset of over 4,500 interconnection cost studies and 36,000 interconnection requests, we find that ERIS has not delivered a durable cost or speed advantage. Its historical cost advantage is largely a "threshold effect" that appears only when a project avoids network upgrades altogether. As grid saturation has cut the share of zero-cost ERIS outcomes from roughly 80% to 10%, that advantage has largely evaporated, and developer demand has contracted in step.
π ssrn.com/abstract=6881698
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Reviewing six ISOs and three major vertically integrated utilities, we document wide and often poorly understood variation in study methods, cost allocation, and procurement rules, showing how regions range from managing congestion through real-time operations to triggering network upgrades during interconnection.
π ssrn.com/abstract=6870718
Notably, both papers conclude that the issue is not the concept of energy-only interconnection β which remains economically sound β but how it has been implemented: restrictive study assumptions that require upgrades for congestion that could instead be handled through operational redispatch.
We hope these serve as useful resources as stakeholders and researchers continue to evaluate these issues, and very much welcome feedback!
Charles Harper retweeted
DON'T BAN 'EM; MAKE 'EM PAY!
@JaneAFlegal served as Senior Director for Industrial Emissions in the Biden White House.
At Searchlight, she's spearheading novel policy ideas that can turn America's data center buildout into massive public benefits for working families.
There are already more than 4,000 data centers across the country. Instead of a moratorium on these facilities, Jane proposes an American Grid Infrastructure Fund β a new system which would ensure:
1. Families only pay for the electricity they use, and never pay more because of data centers
2. Data centers invest in the grid by funding massive, generational upgrades to the electricity system we all use β ending decades of neglect
3. Regulators can hold companies accountable to every single commitment they make
In addition to the Fund, she has also proposed that states use tax incentives to 'make data centers better grid citizens:' take-or-pay load commitments, full cost causation, and more.
Jane and @danielledeis sit down to discuss.
0:00 - State tax abatement
7:12 - A federal moratorium vs. modernizing the grid
11:50 - Permitting reform ... and then what?
17:02 - Why this moment needs bigger ideas
25:10 - Revisiting the Inflation Reduction Act
30:10 - Climate hushing; 'don't say climate'
Charles Harper retweeted
Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk. Donald Trump is handing out taxpayer money to coal barons and leaving us with nothing but higher energy costs. β @LenaMDC
teapawt.org/business/status/206227β¦
President Donald Trump is preparing to use Cold War-era authorities to dole hundreds of millions of federal dollars to support coal-fired electricity as well as US exports of the fossil fuel bloomberg.com/news/articles/β¦
Charles Harper retweeted
watch jannik sinner become a climate activist and end global warming ππ
I just presented to the @pjminterconnect Board at its Annual Meeting on the need for continued interconnection reform.
PJM has made strides in connecting power to the grid faster, but we need more to meet AI load growth and keep costs down.
PJM should do these 2 things next:
2οΈβ£ PJM must make connect-and-manage into a true fast track, with faster study timelines and no lengthy grid upgrades required for traditional interconnection.
Right now, it takes just as long and is not a compelling speed-to-power alternative for data centers or clean energy.
The work on interconnection is not done. With these two reforms, PJM can bring much-needed power online and keep energy bills from climbing even higher.
Iβd like to thank PJMβs board and the other public interest group members for inviting me and @EvergreenAction to speak today.
AI tools can cut approval timelines for new power projects to under a year. But RTOs like PJM are slow-walking its adoption.
Our latest @EvergreenAction piece shows which interconnection study steps can be automated and which RTOs are leading and falling behind.
Read the full analysis here, from Arjun Krishnaswami and me: evergreencollaborative.com/pβ¦
Charles Harper retweeted
New modeling out today! Repealing Michigan's clean energy plan would raise costs, cut jobs, and harm public health.
The numbers don't lie. Here's what repeal would actually mean for Michigan. π§΅
Full analysis β¬οΈ evergreenaction.com/policy-hβ¦
This @nytimes article misses a major point: Oil is a global commodity with one global price.
It doesn't matter if a country imports 20% or 80%--a shutdown of mideast oil exports will increase costs around the world. More people need to take energy econ
nytimes.com/interactive/2026β¦
Charles Harper retweeted
Today @Groundwork and @DataProgress released some polling we did on energy, data centers, and how government should respond.
𧡠on the key findings 1/
groundworkcollaborative.org/β¦
Charles Harper retweeted
The only people celebrating this decision are the corporations who paid for it.
The EPA exists for one reason: to protect our health and the environment. But under Trump and Administrator Zeldin, itβs become a protection racket for their Big Fossil Fuel allies.
ALT Graphic of fossil fuel pollution with text: "Breaking: corrupt Trump EPA caves to corporate polluters, kills landmark climate finding"
New @EvergreenAction piece: Data centers are raising energy costs, but most proposed solutions only address half the problem.
Large load tariffs are important, but we need policies that tackle higher generation costs too. Thatβs where BYONCE comes inβ¦
evergreenaction.com/blog/howβ¦
Bad Bunny is shining a light on decades of disinvestment in Puerto Ricoβs electric grid.
But just last month, Trump canceled all 8 government programs to improve grid reliability on the island. $450 million of canceled funding.
The colonialism is ongoing
latitudemedia.com/news/the-eβ¦
This is illegal and also insane.
βIn a reversal, the EPA plans to calculate only the cost to industry when setting pollution limits, and not the monetary value of saving human lives, documents show.β
nytimes.com/2026/01/12/climaβ¦
How devastating to see that Tatiana Schlossberg passed away yesterday. It was a true honor to interview her in 2020, on climate guilt, empowerment, and the effects of our overconsumption.
Rest in peace to a fantastic environmental journalist and thinker.
open.spotify.com/episode/6xJβ¦
