Our electric grid: not ready for prime time

Written on: May 6, 2021

Dear Friends, I’m sure all of you followed the debacle of power outages in Texas in the wake of the deep freeze that hit in February. We all empathized. It seems as if three or four times per year, a storm knocks out our power, leaving tens of thousands of families without energy for days, and in some cases, weeks. With that in mind, it’s troubling to see so many state governments rushing ahead on an “electrify everything” path as a perceived solution to protecting the environment.

I believe that we must take aggressive steps to address climate change too—and we’ve already taken a stand. That’s why Brideau Energy started delivering Bioheat® fuel two years ago. We maintain our own storage terminal, so we have more control over the quality and quantity of fuel supply than most companies.

The current strategy by federal and state governments to reduce carbon emissions primarily through electrification is shortsighted. Many of these state and federal agencies will not even engage with the heating oil or propane industries to learn how we are already helping them achieve their carbonreduction goals right now.

However well intended the “all-electric” movement is, it is relying on breakthroughs that have not yet happened—to an already unreliable electric grid. The last thing we need to do is to overload an electric grid that is not ready for prime time.

What we do need is a thoughtful policy that addresses our climate without putting all of our energy eggs into one fragile basket.

Warmly, Mark Brideau Sr.