Recognizing that the retirement of nonintermittent electric generation facilities, before facilities with equal or greater reliability attributes are available, is a threat to the reliability of the United States electric grid.

This measure says that shutting down power plants that provide steady, around-the-clock electricity before equally reliable replacements are ready is a threat to the reliability of the U.S. power grid . In short, it warns that the grid can become less dependable if “always-on” sources are retired too soon without something just as reliable to take their place .

• Who is affected: Families, businesses, hospitals, and others who need steady power; grid operators and utilities that keep the lights on .
• What changes: This is a formal statement of concern; it does not create new rules by itself .
• Why it matters: It highlights the need to keep reliable power sources available until replacements with equal or better reliability are in place, to avoid outages or instability on the grid .