States assert lead role in US EPA's climate rules for existing plants

Washington (Platts)--20Nov2013/230 pm EST/1930 GMT


State regulators on Wednesday called on the US Environmental Protection Agency to "recognize the primacy of states" as it moves ahead with creating a rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in a resolution adopted at its meeting in Orlando, Florida, said that EPA should "rely on both state utility and environmental regulators to lead the creation of emission performance systems that reflect the policies, energy needs, resource mix, economic conditions of each State and region."

In adopting the resolution, state regulators found common ground on a pair of competing resolutions that sought to respond to the Obama administration's efforts to move ahead with regulating GHG emission from existing power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.

In June, President Obama directed EPA to propose standards for existing power plants no later than June 2014, requiring states to submit plans under Section 111(d) to EPA on how they will implement those standards by June 30, 2016. Obama's memo also instructed EPA to work closely with states, saying that states "will play a central role" in the process.

In the run-up to NARUC's meeting, Jon McKinney of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia and Joshua Epel of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission offered diverging resolutions on what approach EPA should take and how to acknowledge coal's role in the power generation fleet.

The compromise included elements of both resolutions, as well as new language highlighting the leadership role states should play in the process. The compromise also omitted or weakened some of the language McKinney had sought to include highlighting coal's place in the electric fleet, language that was not included in Epel's proposal.

The final resolution did not specifically note, for instance, that CO2 emissions would fall as coal plants are retired. And rather than saying that maintaining coal plants "through the end of their useful lives" may be in the best interest of ratepayers if those plants meet standards for conventional pollutants like ozone, as McKinney proposed, the final resolution said instead that maintaining "certain plants" within that category "for a period of time" may benefit ratepayers.

The adopted resolution as well includes new language saying that "the States need EPA under the relevant statutory factors, to issue guidelines that avoid GHG emissions reductions that are not feasible."

--Bobby McMahon, bobby.mcmahon@platts.com
--Edited by Derek Sands, derek.sands@platts.com

 

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