State regulators to discuss EPA draft rule with House subcommittee
The Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing is likely to survey the EPA proposal’s legal foundation, its effect on power supply and its likely cost along with a look at state concerns about implementation costs and the need for legislation.
A committee memo notes that while some states might need to pass legislation to comply with the federal mandate, some legislatures have passed bills that seek to limit their states’ response to the proposal. Kentucky, for example, has approved a law that runs counter to EPA’s proposal by limiting state plans to what can be achieved “inside the fence line” at a power plant.
State regulators scheduled to testify represent a wide range of views.
On one side of the witness list is Ken Anderson, a member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas who said last month at a stakeholder meeting that the plan could lead EPA to impose a federal implementation plan on his state. By drafting a state plan for the existing power plant rule, he said, Texas might inadvertently help expand EPA’s authority (EnergyWire, Aug. 18).
On the panel’s other side: Kelly Speakes-Backman, a Maryland Public Service Commission member and chairwoman of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s board of directors, who earlier this summer applauded EPA for crafting a rule that “follows the natural path of electricity itself” by allowing states to take a regional approach to the rule.
Also on the dais: Henry Darwin, director of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality; Tom Easterly, commissioner of Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management; Travis Kavulla, a commissioner of the Montana Public Service Commission; Paul Roberti, a utility commissioner from Rhode Island; and David Danner, chairman of Washington state’s Utility and Transportation Commission.
EPA’s public comment period on the proposal is scheduled to close Oct. 16 despite calls by congressional Republicans and some states to keep it open. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has given no indication that the agency might extend that deadline, noting that it has already allocated stakeholders 120 days to weigh in — more than for any other rulemaking.
EPA has already received 700,000 comments on the proposal, which seeks to cut today’s utility sector emissions by 30 percent compared with 2005 levels by 2030. Many more are expected to flow in as the deadline nears.
But while some officials have been free with their initial thoughts, many states are still mulling what the rule would mean for them.
The EPA draft relies on a complex formula, setting state targets based on what it deems each can achieve through four “building blocks,” which include heat-rate improvements at coal-fired power plants and more dispatch of combined-cycle natural gas units, zero-carbon energy and demand-side efficiency. But states and analysts alike say it has been difficult to decipher how the various elements of the so-called Clean Power Plan will interact, or what actions by states and utilities can be counted toward compliance.
John McClure, general counsel of the Nebraska Public Power District, said at July’s Washington, D.C., meeting of the Environmental Council of the States that Nebraska and his utility were still coming to terms with what the draft would mean for them.
“I think we need to figure out what can Nebraska do,” he said. Like many other states, Nebraska held meetings over the summer on aspects of the rule, including the way it would affect the Southwest Power Pool that serves the state.
“Our Department of Environmental Quality isn’t used to working with a regional transmission organization,” he said.
Schedule: The hearing is Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Witnesses: Ken Anderson, a member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas; Kelly Speakes-Backman, a commissioner at the Maryland Public Service Commission and chairwoman of the board of directors of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative; Henry Darwin, director of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality; Tom Easterly, commissioner of Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management; Travis Kavulla, a commissioner of the Montana Public Service Commission; Paul Roberti, a Rhode Island Public Utility commissioner; and David Danner, chairman of Washington state’s Utility and Transportation Commission.