WASHINGTON – Energy industry leaders at a congressional hearing described ambitions for a national electrical grid similar to the plan Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest power utility, announced a day earlier.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are seeking a power grid that relies more heavily on renewable energy without adding hefty costs for consumers. They also want greater security against terrorist and cyber attacks.

“Renewable energy and distributed energy resources are changing the way electricity is produced and delivered throughout the nation,” said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, at Thursday’s hearing.

Smith’s statement during the hearing closely paralleled the motivation behind the “Colorado Energy Plan” that Xcel submitted to regulators this week.

Unlike other renewable energy proposals that would drive up costs for consumers, the Xcel plan would be a project with “very favorable pricing and with a variety of technologies,” Mark Stutz, the company’s spokesman, told Colorado Politics.

The congressional hearing followed a Trump administration policy statement last week encouraging the U.S. Energy Department to avoid the closure of coal-fired and nuclear energy plants that have provided the backbone of the nation’s electrical grid for decades. They could qualify for federal assistance to continue operating.

President Donald Trump is concerned that a shift toward newer renewable energy sources might leave the nation without reliable electrical generators.

He also campaigned on a platform to end what he calls the “war on coal,” despite many energy experts saying the coal industry is suffering mostly because of market conditions working against it, such as cheap natural gas and consumer demand for non-polluting power.

In Colorado, Xcel announced this week it planned an early shutdown of the Comanche Station in Pueblo that generates 660 MW of coal-fired electricity.

However, some energy industry executives said the Trump policy ignores that newer technologies represent improved electrical generation capabilities.

“The president and [the Department of Energy] are undertaking a misguided program to fund the continued operation of old, uneconomic and unreliable power plants,” said Robert E. Gramlich, president of the energy industry consulting firm Grid Strategies LLC.

“Renewable energy costs have fallen by over two-thirds this decade, so it is certain that wind and solar use will continue to grow based on favorable economics regardless of public policy on renewable energy or climate,” Gramlich said during the congressional hearing. “This presents major opportunities for customers and utilities.”

Most of the outages Trump wants to avoid result from the way electricity is transmitted to customers over power lines rather than weaknesses in power generation or fuel supplies, he said.

A better option than keeping coal-fired and nuclear plants open would be to improve transmission systems, such as burying overhead power lines in underground cables that are not vulnerable to bad weather or vandalism, he said. Gramlich also suggested hardening computer systems that control electrical grids and making certain spare transformers and other transmission equipment is available.

The dispute over whether generators or transmission systems should be blamed for potential weaknesses in the nation’s grid is being highlighted by differing proposals of the Trump administration and Democrats in Congress.

Trump’s proposed federal budget recommends cutting funding for the Energy Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery by at least two-thirds to as little as $8 million after three years. The agency is charged with modernizing the electric grid’s transmission systems and making them more resilient against failure.

However, a House bill would restore the funding to $51 million after three years.

Gramlich said the Trump policy protecting older generators instead of improving transmission systems would propagate the problems it seeks to avoid.

“Coal and nuclear plants are just as vulnerable to attack as other resources,” he told the House subcommittee on energy. “If anything, renewable plants tend to be smaller, which reduces the impact of any failure.”

Democrats on the subcommittee on energy slammed an Energy Department official who told them he had no good estimate on the costs to keep coal and nuclear power plants operating with federal assistance.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Virginia, quoted from an Electricity Consumers Resource Council statement saying that purchasing electricity from older power plants would drive up costs for industry, such as manufacturers.

He asked Energy Department Assistant Secretary Bruce J. Walker, “Have you calculated the costs on American business, specifically American manufacturing?”

Walker replied, “I have not.”