Two key suggestions embedded in US Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s controversial grid-study order – that renewables are killing off baseload generation, and that the shifting US power mix is undermining grid reliability – do not hold up to scrutiny, according to a detailed new report from the Analysis Group.

To the chagrin of the US renewables industry, Perry in April called for a 60-day study into the “erosion of critical baseload resources” like coal and nuclear plants, asking whether “mandates and tax and subsidy policies” are forcing such plants out of business in competitive electricity markets.