How Can States Comply with the Clean Power Plan?
Channel: eesionline
Date: 08/06/2015

Learn more and download slides at http://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/060515cpp
Table of contents: https://youtu.be/BzZrJB9ihs8?t=22s

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.

Speakers: 

Bill Becker
Executive Director, National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA)
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Bill_Becker_060515.pdf

David Terry
Executive Director, National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/David_Terry_060515.pdf

Charles Gray
Executive Director, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)

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.

This briefing was the second in a series examining the Clean Power Plan and its implications. Find out more about the first event at www.eesi.org/040815cpp.