Greenhouse gas emissions can be cut rapidly — history shows that change can be easier, cheaper, and faster than we think

Sean Casten’s recent article in Spark explains that history is rife with examples of rapid change in the power sector. He argues the current congressional climate-change debate is based on a false assumption — that many decades are needed before greenhouse-gas pollution can be cut.

Consider, for instance, the rapid changes resulting from the Energy Policy Act and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s subsequent Order 888. When unregulated entrepreneurs finally were allowed to generate power, they — in only ten years — built nearly 200,000 megawatts of electric capacity, twice that available from all the nation’s nuclear reactors. Put another way, it took us nearly a century to build the first 800,000 megawatts of our electric grid, but just a decade to increase it by another 200,000. These plants, moreover, were built mostly with private money, rather than by monopolies guaranteed a profit.

Consider also New England’s forward capacity market. When smaller players (and not just utilities) were finally incentivized to reduce electricity demand, this forward market brought forth — in just two years — nearly 3,000 megawatts of energy savings, more than 10 percent of New England’s largest peak demand. The massive improvement in grid reliability occurred without the need to consturct a single central power plant or the need for financial backstops from ratepayers.

Sean concludes, “Our optimism is much more likely to be limited by our ambition than any capital, technical, thermodynamic, or commercial constraint. Tackling climate change and changing the electricity system can be easier, cheaper, and faster than we think. Once we start.”