| The state of the U.S. power grid has come under increasing scrutiny in Congress as a growing amount of renewable energy comes onto the nation's power grid while coal and natural gas plants fall out of favor. Energy reporter James Osborne writes that grid officials across the country warn Americans could face regular blackouts if the transition isn't managed correctly – though, there's a wide variety of views among lawmakers, experts, and officials on how to solve the problem. "The problem is not the addition of wind and solar, it's the subtraction of dispatchable resources like coal and gas through this cascading number of early retirements," said Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie, a Republican appointed during the Trump administration, during hearing U.S. Senate committee hearing last week. The state of the power grid is drawing concern at the national level from Democrats and Republicans alike, not just over the rapid closure of coal and gas plants but the rise in extreme weather events that can knock out generation and transmission lines. It's an issue that has also been top of mind for many Texas officials, some of which are pushing plans to use state funds to build more natural gas electricity generation. However, some experts say that building more gas plants or preserving coal plants are not the only solutions. Alison Silverstein, an Austin-based consultant and former adviser at FERC, said Texas needed to invest in improving its energy efficiency. "It's not just old power plants are closing but we've done nothing on energy efficiency, so we're always chasing a rising demand growth," she said. "The real challenge is how do we adapt to the energy transition and the needs of the grid with high renewable penetration. That's less, 'Let's build a bunch of gas plants' and more, 'Let's wring as much (electricity) as we can out of the grid.'" | 
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