(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



InfluenceMap Utility Engagement on U.S. Power Plant Rules, April 2023 [1]

[]

Date: 2024-03

Engagement on the EPA Power Sector Pre-Proposal In September 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a non-rulemaking docket to receive public input on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 1) new fossil gas plants – of which there are 145 currently proposed or under construction – and 2) existing fossil gas and coal plants. The pre-proposal marks a first step by the EPA toward regulating GHGs from electricity generation and will be followed by a formal proposal from the agency in the spring of 2023. The Biden administration’s first attempt at regulating carbon emissions from power plants carries tremendous significance for U.S. climate policy given the history of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which was never enacted following legal attack from industry, and the subsequent Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The pre-proposal docket was open for comment until March 27th and attracted opposition from some of the country’s largest utilities and utility groups. Thus far, the sector’s comments all appear to advocate for flexibilities in compliance, with a focus on promoting a long-term role for fossil gas and exemptions for coal-fired retirements:

In November 2022 comments, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) defended the role of fossil gas in the energy mix, asking the EPA to “set standards that acknowledge that natural gas generation will continue to play an essential role.” It also supported an expanded role for ammonia without specifying the need to decarbonize its production.

In December 2022 comments, Southern Company advocated against imposing more ambitious limits on existing coal and fossil gas plants and emphasized that the EPA should facilitate the construction of new fossil gas infrastructure.

In December 2022 comments, the Power Generators Air Coalition (PGen), a 501(c)(6) registered organization as of January 2021, pushed for flexibility in compliance – including multiple exemptions for existing fossil fuel plants – and advocated for an expedited process to build new fossil gas cycle combustion turbines. Utility members of PGen include American Electric Power, CMS Energy, DTE Energy, PPL Corp subsidiaries LG&E and KU, Southern Company, and Vistra Corp.

In January 2023 comments, the Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative (MPSC), a group convened by the nonprofit Great Plains Institute as of 2012 that counts utilities (alongside other companies and stakeholders) among its members, advocated for flexibility and standards that support a long-term role for fossil gas infrastructure. Utilities that signed these comments include Alliant Energy, CMS Energy subsidiary Consumers Energy, DTE Energy, Entergy, Xcel Energy, and WEC Energy Group.

In a second round of comments in February 2023, EEI advocated for compliance exemptions for coal plants that are already slated for retirement and pushed for an expanded role for hydrogen without clarifying its position on decarbonizing hydrogen production. As in its November 2022 comments, EEI appeared to advocate for standards that supported a long-term role for fossil gas plants.

In February 2023 comments, the Class of ’85 Regulatory Response Group (Class of '85), a utility group that has been engaging on U.S. energy regulations for over 30 years, advocated for the EPA to support flexible compliance pathways, including exemptions for coal plants scheduled to retire, as well as standards that facilitate a prominent role for fossil gas. Utilities that signed these comments include AES Corp, Alliant Energy, Ameren, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy, Evergy, PPL Corp subsidiaries LG&E and KU, National Grid, NRG Energy, and Xcel Energy.

These comments showcase early opposition to anticipated limits on power plant GHG emissions and demonstrate a strong push by major players for the long-term role for fossil gas in the U.S. energy mix. The lack of positive engagement from other industry players is particularly notable given the presence of higher scoring U.S. utilities tracked in InfluenceMap’s database, which usually engage with positive positions at the federal level yet appear absent on this pre-proposal, such as Edison International subsidiary Southern California Edison, Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and Consolidated Edison.

From Clean Power Plan to Pre-Proposal Over the past decade, sustained utility opposition to the EPA’s power sector proposals has contributed to a regulatory and legal landscape characterized by delays and limitations on agency action to address GHG emissions. Analysis by the Rhodium Group found that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could reduce emissions by as much as 42% below 2005 levels in 2030. While the climate investments in the IRA are a significant achievement, ambitious regulations are critical to closing the emissions gap and meeting President Biden’s target of achieving 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. Despite publishing a timeline to propose carbon standards for new and existing power plants by June 2022 and July 2022, respectively, this pre-proposal is the first indication of action by the administration. The Clean Power Plan (CPP), announced in August 2015 by the Obama administration, introduced the first national standards on reducing carbon emissions from power plants. Many of the largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and trade associations in the U.S strongly opposed the CPP, both though public engagement and funding of other organizations. One of the most powerful of these organizations was the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), an association whose funders, as reported by Politico and Energy and Policy Institute, included the utility trade group Edison Electric Institute and utilities American Electric Power Company (AEP), Duke Energy, and Southern Company. The UARG presented fierce pushback to the CPP in the form of multiple legal challenges and filed a motion to stay the rule. Following investigations by Congress into its ties and influence with the EPA, the coalition disbanded in May 2019.

Now, with the introduction of the EPA’s pre-proposal in 2023, InfluenceMap finds that nearly the exact same collective of utilities that fought the CPP are lining up to oppose the Biden Administration’s power plant rules. As illustrated in the graphic below, many of the same electric utilities that opposed the CPP as members of the UARG are engaging negatively on the power sector pre-proposal through other coalitions.

With the exception of FirstEnergy, all of the UARG utilities that do not appear in PGen and MPSC still negatively engaged on the pre-proposal, but through the Class of ’85 Regulatory Response Group instead. The Class of ’85 criticized both the Clean Power Plan and the EPA’s new pre-proposal, with significant overlap in companies during each time frame:

Members of the Class of '85 that endorsed the group's multiple negative engagements from 2014 to 2018 on the CPP and its replacement by the ACE rule include AES, Alliant, Entergy, National Grid, NRG, PPL Corp and subsidiaries LG&E/KU, Xcel, and NextEra

Members of the Class of '85 that endorsed the group's February 2023 negative engagement on the pre-proposal include AES, Alliant, Entergy, National Grid, NRG, PPL Corp subsidiaries LG&E/KU, Xcel, Ameren, Dominion, Duke, and Evergy.

Clearly, the use of different trade associations and coalitions like UARG, PGEN, and MPSC is a common strategy for utilities to influence climate policy. More details on the Class of ’85 are available in the Appendix. By contrast, utilities Edison International, Exelon, Consolidated Edison, National Grid - which negatively engaged on the pre-proposal through the Class of '85, as shown above - and PG&E took legal action, separately as well as jointly, between 2015 and 2019 to both support the Clean Power Plan and oppose its replacement by the ACE rule. Despite this positive engagement in the past, none of these utilities have offered comments on the pre-proposal.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://influencemap.org/briefing/Utility-Engagement-on-U-S-Power-Plant-Rules-April-2023-21668

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.