6.1a ERMUSR 08-14-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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EPA Emissions Possible changes to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) Standards Uncertain emissions standards increase planning uncertainties. The EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) Final Rule, issued in April 2013, established emission limits for mercury, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, acid gases, and certain individual metals for new power plants. The MATS Rule was expected to particularly affect the cost of future coal and oil-fired power plants if it fully went into effect. After reviews by courts, the D.C. circuit court suspended the case indefinitely. In 2015, the EPA also reviewed the research linking smog exposure to adverse health effects such as asthma. Subsequently, the EPA updated the ozone rules with stricter limits to tighten standards on ozone from 75 parts per billion (ppb)to 70 ppb. In a court filing in April 2017, the federal government said the EPA officials appointed by the new administration were reviewing the 2015 rule to determine whether the EPA should reconsider some or all of the rule. In addition, the federal government is reviewing the Clean Power Plan, which aims to cut emissions from existing power plants by 32% by 2030, and the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. These emissions standards and rules could be scaled back or eliminated. In March 2017, in a broad executive order on energy,the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases was disbanded. This order withdrew the group's technical documents that form the scientific and economic basis for calculating the social cost of carbon and provide federal agencies a key tool to measure the benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. While the absence of guidance from the federal government on the cost of carbon and other emissions could lead to confusion in certain types of planning scenarios, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has established emission costs. The costs are in its order Updating Environmental Cost Values issued on January 3, 2018 and in its order Establishing 2018 and 2019 Estimate of Future Carbon Dioxide Regulation Costs issued on June 11, 2018. Initiatives to While the federal government has indicated a desire to the scale Decrease Carbon back or eliminate environmental regulations, individual states and Emissions some cities are taking initiatives and setting goals and rules to first cap and then decrease carbon emissions from certain sectors of their economies. In Minnesota,the legislature has a state CO?reduction 79