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DOE Issues Emergency Order for Grid in Carolinas Waiving Emissions Caps to Evade Blackouts

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The US Department of Energy on Thursday issued an emergency order authorizing Duke Energy to maximize power generation output through Friday night, bypassing environmental permit limits to mitigate grid blackouts across the Carolinas during an intense heatwave.

The directive legally empowers Duke Energy to push specified generating units to their absolute maximum capacity.

The temporary order took effect on Thursday and is scheduled to expire on Friday.

The emergency clearance directly bypasses existing air quality rules, allowing the utility to maximize output notwithstanding standard permit limitations arising under federal, state, or local environmental regulations.

According to the DOE, the rapid regulatory intervention was approved following an explicit application from Duke Energy, as regional balancing authorities faced severe strain from a combination of unusually high load forecasts and soaring peak temperatures.

Wright stated that the administration is actively using all statutory tools to restore energy security, pointing back to a national energy emergency declared by President Trump on his first day in office aimed at shielding domestic consumers from rolling power disruptions.

For wholesale power markets, the federal intervention underscores escalating seasonal reliability risks across the Southeastern electricity footprint.

By waiving regulatory emissive penalties, the order ensures that Duke Energy can dispatch every megawatt of available capacity to manage the regional demand spike, lowering the immediate probability of firm load shedding or cascading infrastructure failures through the conclusion of the heat event.

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