E&E News covered our call with others for FERC to consider carbon pricing, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.).
Calls are growing for carbon pricing in the nation's regional power markets, and that's fueling concerns that such a move could derail states' efforts to expand renewables and curb emissions... In the absence of an aggressive federal push to curb climate change under the Trump administration, states have led the charge to cut emissions, enacting more than 500 clean energy laws in 2019 alone, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
The resulting transcontinental patchwork of state-mandated renewable integration has elicited backlash from fossil fuel generators and forced regional grid operators to referee conflicting interests in wholesale power and capacity markets, which are largely regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Now, a diverse coalition of trade associations, power producers and other stakeholders is asking FERC to exercise its convening power and hold a technical conference to discuss how carbon pricing could factor into the fray...
Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel for Advanced Energy Economy, said that although his organization maintains that carbon pricing should be one in a suite of tools available to states, it's important for FERC to use its convening power to bring the spate of regional conversations into one room. "All of these organizations agree competitive wholesale markets are the best option for transitioning the power grid," [Dennis] said. "We think this is a good start to a broader conversation about how wholesale markets better accommodate state policy..."
Read the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.).