5.4. ERMUSR 02-10-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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11armarsevie 1111,11114111 Position Statement Clean Power Plan Background On June 18, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)published a proposed rule intended to address climate change concerns, known as the Clean Power Plan(CPP).The CPP would establish emission guidelines for existing electric generating units �- (EGUs)under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act(CAA). EPA is expected to issue the final version of the CPP in mid-summer 2015. It is likely that the final rule will contain significant changes and clarifications. 1, IMP Legal Issues The CPP is very different ° from clean air regulations developed by EPA in The new CapX2020 transmission lines were built, in large part,to carry wind power.Will the the past. It is subject to carbon dioxide emission reductions enabled by this more than $2 billion project count toward numerous legal challenges the state's Clean Power Plan emissions reduction targets? and is probably more susceptible to being overturned than most new the amount of renewable power to be built, and(iii) regulations. Section 111(d) of the CAA is intended to the electricity consumption of customers. This is an regulate stationary sources of air pollution,but the enormous and transformative expansion in EPA's CPP doesn't regulate individual sources, such as power regulatory authority without clear congressional plants. It regulates states. The law intends that states authorization, which is precisely what the Supreme develop plans which establish standards of performance Court invalidated in UARG v. EPA, 573 U.S. at 2431 for power plants. But the CPP turns this process on its (2014). head and makes states the regulated entities rather than the regulators that the law intends them to be. CPP treatment of early action. Under EPA's methodology, states are assumed to Of the nearly 100 New Source Performance Standards achieve minimal reductions in CO2 emissions from the (NSPS) and emission guidelines EPA has developed electric utility industry during the 15-year period from since 1970, every one has been based on a"system of 2005 to 2020. States are then required to achieve their emission reduction" that is incorporated into the design entire assigned reduction(41 percent for Minnesota) or operation of individual sources. The CPP instead during the 10-year period from 2020 to 2030.This uses a series of"building blocks"that go well beyond the construct not only flies in the face of reality in early operational characteristics of the power plant that is adopter states such as Minnesota, it also ignores the the source of the CO2 emissions that the EPA wants to incremental pace of change that occurs in the highly reduce. regulated and capital-intensive electric utility industry. The EPA would replace the Federal Energy Regulatory Although the goal of the CPP is to achieve a 30 percent Agency and the states to become the primary regulator reduction in 2005 carbon dioxide emissions, the actual of electric power within the United States, including base year for the plan is 2012. Reductions in CO2 regulating(i)the dispatch of electric generation, (ii) emissions achieved during the seven-year period from 2015 State Position Statements/3