Advanced Energy Perspectives

With EPA’s Clean Power Plan scheduled for its first day in court on April 16, opposition to the rule has heated up on the Hill—or, more accurately, off the Hill. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a call for states to “just say no” to EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) with an op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Ledger, then sent a letter to the governors of all 50 states advising them not to comply with the rule.

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As the release of EPA’s final Clean Power Plan (CPP) approaches, utilities, regulators, and state officials across the country are weighing compliance options. After the final rule is released mid-summer, and after a lot more analysis and deliberation, states will craft implementation plans (SIPs) tailored to their particular circumstances. In some states, however, legislators have introduced bills aiming to slow or block their state’s compliance with the CPP. Increasingly, this legislation is meeting with resistance from stakeholders—most importantly, utilities.

After the comment period closed on December 1, the stats were in: EPA received more than 4 million comments on the Clean Power Plan from individuals, organizations, and state regulatory bodies. It would take 71 people working eight hours a day from now until June to read them all. But don't worry—our Carbon Policy Analysts identified the top comments and plowed through them. This is the fifth of five blog posts presenting AEE’s summary of and take on comments from a few key stakeholders: federal and state regulatory organizations, states, ISO/RTOs, utilities, and industry and environmental groups. This final post covers comments from industry groups and environmental groups.

In its comments, AEE emphasized the greater role advanced energy technologies could play in the Final Rule, making suggestions ranging from strengthening the renewable and energy efficiency targets to providing guidance on EM&V to clarifying that a variety of advanced energy technologies will be accepted in state compliance plans. Many industry associations, NGOs and private-sector companies submitted their own sets of comments, some of which took positions that aligned closely with AEE’s. While AEE presented a unique perspective in its comments, a very diverse group of organizations and companies share its positions on many key issues.

After the comment period closed on December 1, the stats were in: EPA received more than 4 million comments on the Clean Power Plan from individuals, organizations, and state regulatory bodies. It would take 71 people working eight hours a day from now until June to read them all. But don't worry—our Carbon Policy Analysts identified the top comments and plowed through them. This is the fourth of five blog posts presenting AEE’s summary of and take on comments from a few key stakeholders: federal and state regulatory organizations, states, ISO/RTOs, utilities, and industry and environmental groups. This post covers comments from major utilities and utility groups.

Utilities reacted strongly to EPA’s Proposed Rule. The Edison Electric Institute, which represents most of the country’s IOUs, filed 400 pages of comments; one of EEI’s key messages was that the rule fails to ensure reliable operation, which echos comments from states and ISOs/RTOs. Nearly all of the comments from individual utilities also contain some discussion of the Proposed Rule’s impact on reliability.

After the comment period closed on December 1, the stats were in: EPA received more than 4 million comments on the Clean Power Plan from individuals, organizations, and state regulatory bodies. By one estimate, it would take 71 people working eight hours a day from now until June to read them all. But don't worry—our Carbon Policy Analysts identified the top comments and plowed through them. This is the third of five blog posts presenting AEE’s summary of and take on comments from a few key stakeholders: federal and state regulatory organizations, states, ISO/RTOs, utilities, and industry and environmental groups. Here, we cover the reactions of ISOs and RTOs.