EPA expected to retain interim CO2 reduction goals

OREANDA-NEWS. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appears likely to retain interim CO2 reduction targets in its Clean Power Plan but could find other ways to create a better "glide path" for achieving emission reductions, industry groups say.

EPA has faced strong pressure from the power sector to drop interim annual emission reduction targets that would apply from 2020 to 2029, given concerns that early targets would function as a compliance "cliff" that will be difficult to achieve. But a top industry official expects the interim targets are here to stay despite the industry lobbying.

"Through many public statements EPA has made and statements they have made to us directly, that is not going to happen, they are not going to eliminate the interim goal," Edison Electric Institute director of fuels, technology and commercial policy Karen Obenshain said today at the annual conference of the Energy Bar Association in Washington, DC.

EPA administrator Gina McCarthy offered one of her strongest endorsement of interim goals last month at an event in Chicago, where she called them "essential" because of the long time frame of the rule. Even with her support for the interim goals, McCarthy said the agency was considering ways to revise them to address state and industry concerns.

Obenshain's trade group, which represents investor-owned electric utilities, is trying to figure out different glide paths between 2020 and 2030 that could ease implementation and avoid spikes in electric rates. One possible option is to phase in the four "building blocks" EPA used for setting CO2 targets so the interim goals are more gradual, she said.

Electric companies that support the Clean Power Plan say concerns with the rule are overstated. Exelon federal regulatory affairs senior vice president Kathleen Barron said states and industry will have time before that deadline to start cutting emissions, even though the rule's critics try to portray the 2020 interim goal as a "cliff."

"There is no reason for states to do nothing and then say in 2020 ‘woops,' " Barron said today at the conference. Exelon owns large amounts of nuclear and gas capacity and is expected to benefit from the rule.

EPA, asked for comment about the interim goals, highlighted testimony from agency air chief Janet McCabe in February, when she said the agency was looking "very closely" at the issue.