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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to view a briefing series that examines the Clean Power Plan and its implications.
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing examining key policy and legal issues associated with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rules to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants, which account for 38.7 percent of domestic carbon emissions. According to the EPA, its proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) would lead to a 30 percent cut in carbon emissions from the power sector by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. How will these cuts be implemented? And will the CPP hold up in court?
State Officials Working Together to Identify Options
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing examining the breadth of options available for states to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan, which will be finalized later this summer. The Plan will set rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Each state will be given a different target for emissions reductions, based on its specific circumstances. States will then have to submit plans to the EPA outlining how they will achieve their targets.
State energy, environmental, and utility officials are already working closely together to identify compliance options, with the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) leading the way. On May 21, NACAA, which represents air regulators in 41 states and over 100 local agencies, released a comprehensive document examining potential state compliance strategies under the Clean Power Plan. NARUC and NASEO are helping to disseminate the report, Implementing EPA’s Clean Power Plan: A Menu of Options, to state energy offices and utility commissions throughout the country. The report does not include recommendations, but instead provides an objective assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to Clean Power Plan compliance. The speakers discussed the co-benefits, costs and effectiveness of these different approaches, as well as the opportunities and challenges the Clean Power Plan represents to states.
Despite some states’ opposition to the federal regulation, only one state, Oklahoma, has publicly said it will not prepare a state compliance plan for the Clean Power Plan. Even states with strong coal interests, such as Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri and Utah, are said to be developing plans. These plans may range from regional cap-and-trade systems, which California and the Northeast are currently using, to single-state plans that focus on technical efforts like increasing the efficiency of coal-fired power plants.
How Are States Planning to Comply With the Clean Power Plan?
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing discussing how states are planning to comply with the Clean Power Plan, which limits carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants. Under the authority of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Power Plan represents the first time the United States has placed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, currently the nation’s largest source of carbon pollution. The final Plan, released by the Environmental Protection Agency on August 3, is more ambitious than the draft version, calling for a 32 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels (instead of the 30 in the proposal). The EPA predicts that such a reduction will help the nation avoid 3,600 premature deaths and reduce yearly electricity bills by an average of $84 per ratepayer in 2030. The final Clean Power Plan also gives states an additional two years (until 2022 instead of 2020) to begin cutting CO2 emissions, and has taken into account states' feedback to recalculate their specific carbon reduction targets.
For more information, contact Dan O'Brien at [email protected] or (202) 662-1880.
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