A cold snap has begun to bear down on much of the country, presenting a major test for the nation’s electric grids as Americans crank up the heat in record-breaking temperatures.

A “tremendously impactful” winter storm will continue to hit the central and eastern regions of the U.S., with the National Weather Service predicting life-threatening wind chills in the Great Plains. The agency forecasts that every state in the Lower 48 will experience temperatures below 20 degrees by Christmas Eve.

President Joe Biden called the extreme cold weather “dangerous and threatening” Thursday, telling folks to heed local warnings. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is serious stuff,” he said.

For some, the likely blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures are reminiscent of winters past — specifically February 2021, when extreme cold left millions without power for days in Texas and killed more than 200 people.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott assured his state this week that its electrical grid is “absolutely prepared” to meet demand this time around. The state’s grid operator, ERCOT, said it has increased reliability since the power crisis by weatherizing power plants and transmission lines and by bringing more generation online sooner.

But reasons exist to watch how the grid holds up — beyond the Lone Star State.

Large swaths of the U.S. grid are not fully prepared for extreme cold weather, which means the U.S. is eyeing "unprecedented" reliability risks, as POLITICO reporter Catherine Morehouse wrote last month. The regions poised to see the most significant freezes this week — Texas, the Northeast and the Midwest — are also among the most at risk for power shortages.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp., which monitors the reliability and security of the grid, warned last week that utilities and grid operators are not adequately planning for the retirement of coal, gas and nuclear power plants, posing a further threat to the nation's already strained grid infrastructure, POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Peter Behr wrote at the time.

That is especially true in the Midwest, where the Midcontinent Independent System Operator operates the bulk power grid across 15 states, including the upper Great Plains. MISO faces an increasing energy supply shortfall in periods of high demand — such as extreme weather — because it isn't replacing retiring coal and natural gas plants with enough new energy sources.

New England has famously been close to the brink of blackouts every winter, Catherine told Power Switch, which may result in calls for increased fuel deliveries or requests for public conservation.

Fossil fuel supporters, including leaders of the former Trump administration, have pointed to this predicament as a major reason not to abandon tried-and-true fossil fuel sources, like coal. But burning fossil fuels also contributes to more severe weather, and no resource is extreme weather-proof. In the case of Texas in 2021, equipment freezes meant gas power plants couldn't receive the fuel they needed. And in New England, the region's heavy reliance on natural gas, and relative lack of pipeline infrastructure, has bolstered calls to diversify the region's fuel mix, including through offshore wind and hydropower.

It's Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Kelsey Tamborrino, momentarily taking the reins from the great Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected].

As ERCOT encounters the country’s cold snap, Houston Chronicle reporter Jeremy Wallace tweets a handy visual guide to where the Texas grid’s power is coming from. Contrary to the country song, it's largely natural gas and wind keeping the lights on now, not coal.

Inhofe's snowball effect: Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe — perhaps best known by readers of this newsletter for bringing a snowball to the Senate chamber to cast doubt on climate change — is retiring from the chamber after 28 years.

But his environmental policy legacy will live on through his former staffers who've moved to key influential positions across all levels of government, reports POLITICO's E&E News reporter Timothy Cama.  

All aboard the omnibus 

The Senate passed a $1.7 trillion government funding bill for fiscal 2023 on Thursday in a 68-29 vote, sending the package to the House for approval as soon as early Friday.

Recall: POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma and Anthony Adragna detailed earlier this week everything that’s in and left out of the massive bill. Those include a lifeline to Maine’s lobster industry that made it into the bill, and Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting push that was ultimately left on the cutting room floor.

E&E News has a separate rundown of all the bill’s energy and environmental provisions.

COP’s final moments

E&E News' Sara Schonhardt has the inside look at how two words at the COP summit in Egypt — “particularly vulnerable” — helped break the deadlock over the long-sought loss and damage fund for vulnerable nations that are suffering from the effects of climate change.

Musical chairs 

A high-stakes battle is underway to replace Richard Glick as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the power grid and will play a key role in the Biden administration’s climate targets, writes POLITICO's Catherine Morehouse.

Democratic Commissioners Allison Clements and Willie Phillips are the two primary candidates, and their supporters are already lobbying the administration for their preferred candidate to get the job.

Glick leaves the commission at the end of the year.

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Marie French dives into New York’s new suite of climate policies — including a sweeping cap and trade-like system for greenhouse gas emissions.

Battery powered: The Bill Gates-backed battery company Form Energy is planning a $760 million factory in West Virginia, building off the suite of clean energy incentives provided under the climate law, Bloomberg reports. The new factory in Manchin's home state will help move the U.S. away from dependence on foreign supplies for the technology crucial for the green energy transition.

A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.

The Senate is working to confirm a suite of nominees before heading out of town for the rest of the year. On Wednesday, the chamber confirmed Richard Revesz by a voice vote to run the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — a key role managing the federal government's rules and regulations as action before a divided Congress is expected to stall in the new year.

Several environmental groups filed a lawsuit to try to halt a planned offshore oil lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. The lawsuit is the latest in the back-and-forth among the Biden administration, oil companies pushing for more offshore lease sales and environmental groups that have sought to have them stopped.

The conservative Supreme Court has swiftly moved to cuff federal agencies from addressing climate change, health emergencies and other key issues over the last year. Legal observers tell E&E News' Pamela King to expect more of the same in 2023.

That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.