Why is electricity so costly? Look no further than PJM.

In response to the recent commentary, “People’s Counsel: PJM to blame for soaring energy prices” (Sept. 16), I agree that the recent electricity price hike is not, as suggested by the Electric Power Supply Association, the fault of the Office of People’s Counsel or Maryland’s environmental policies.

It is driven by PJM, our area’s regional transmission organization.

Among other things, PJM’s rules exclude older, “must-run” power plants from capacity auctions, driving up ratepayer costs while providing windfall profits to the owners of aging, coal-fired power plants. In addition to the excellent points made in the OPC op-ed, it is also worth considering additional factors within PJM’s control that have driven the price increase.

PJM “de-rated” approximately 26 gigawatts of fossil fuel generation following concerns about unreliability. A high-profile instance in the PJM region occurred during Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, when 47 gigawatts of power were knocked offline and 63% of total outages were attributed to gas-fired power plants.

Another example is when Winter Storm Uri in 2021 took out gas generation in Texas and contributed to at least 246 deaths.

To be sure, this reliability analysis was a critical step to protect residents from outages tied to overvaluation of fossil fuel generation’s reliability. But it led to a price hike because PJM’s refusal to bring clean energy sources online has created a market with insufficient electricity supply. There are currently 286 gigawatts of generation waiting to come online in the PJM region and 95% of this will come from clean sources.

Surging wait times in bringing this supply online, coupled with expanding transmission costs, have resulted in a backlog.

PJM should address this by adopting federal transmission and interconnection guidelines to bring new, clean electricity generation online.

To achieve grid reliability and energy affordability, it’s time to phase out our reliance on fossil fuels and get serious about a just, clean energy transition.

— Brian Gumm, Silver Spring

The writer is communications director at the Center for Progressive Reform.

Time to turn off power line project

The Baltimore Sun recently carried an article about the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (“Maps: See potential paths of Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project power lines,” Sept. 17). As a resident of Carroll County, specifically New Windsor, I do not see the need for this large-scale project, as the hill west of South Carroll High School is a high-efficiency solar farm and more of these can be implemented in the rolling hills of the surrounding area without interfering with farmland and local ecosystems.

There was also mention of unaffiliated parties attempting to buy land from local farmers and property owners. There are many reasons for why someone would do this. It could simply be a scam.

However, this could also be a plan to prevent the project from ever coming to fruition by buying the land and never selling it back.

Or these prospective buyers could be attempting to buy the land to sell it back to the project at a heightened price.

Either way, the project itself seems wholly unnecessary and will only dent the ecological and economic wellbeing of the surrounding area.

This would also solely benefit the richer benefactors while hurting middle class workers in the area.

— Malcolm Lakey, New Windsor

We need more gun control

I’d like to thank The Baltimore Sun for reprinting artist Bill Bramhall’s cartoon from the New York Daily News (“America has a gun violence problem | EDITORIAL CARTOON,” Sept. 18).

If you put an overlay of how many shots fired came from assault weapons, it would be even more dismaying.

Our schools are under siege, our police forces are dwindling, random arguments cause insane havoc, and three-fourths of those who aren’t killed by the bullets have to settle for lifelong physical and mental trauma.

Where do we turn for help? Our government? No. Members of both chambers in Congress refuse to take a stand against the all-powerful National Rifle Association. Trying to get the pulse of America, my requests for putting a simple question of gun control on the national ballot have always been ignored, but hopefully The Baltimore Sun will list all candidates running for office in this election who are receiving support from the NRA. It may swing some votes!

— Welby Loane, Towson