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For manufacturers in the U.S. to remain competitive, they must have access to affordable, reliable electricity, the NAM and 41 state partners told President Biden this week.

What’s going on: “Your administration’s experts and available data have made it clear that our nation’s electric grid is increasingly vulnerable, with heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and Russia’s continued war in Ukraine keeping energy markets tight in the summer months,” the NAM-led manufacturers group wrote to the president.

• “Manufacturers rely on electric stability, meaning power failures would exacerbate the supply chain disruptions and inflation that American families are already enduring.”

What can be done: There are several key moves the administration can start making now to ensure steady, cost-effective power, the group advised. Policymakers should:

• “[P]rioritize the Department of Energy’s implementation of the law’s $2.5 billion of grid modernization investments as well as other grid reliability initiatives.”
• “[S]treamline permitting processes for all energy sources as well as critical minerals, materials and chemicals. This includes committing to on- and offshore energy production and mining on federal lands and waters to ensure reliable sources of fuels and minerals.”
• “[W]ork with manufacturers and electric utilities to support all available electric generation-ready options.”

All available sources: While the group noted that it has long advocated for an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy, renewables “alone are incapable of meeting the demand created by increasing electrification.”