As expected, with the inauguration of President Trump all Obama Administration content on the White House website has been replaced with content of the new Administration. The new content includes “An America First Energy Plan”, the entire focus of which is national security and job creation benefits of the Administration’s “embrace” and promotion of
Clean Power Plan
A Watch List of Possible Changes in EPA’s Final Clean Power Plan
By Mark Perlis on
Posted in Clean Power Plan
In August, EPA is expected to finalize and to modify its ambitious Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. Here is a Watch List of key areas for possible changes and clarification that EPA might make, after considering voluminous public comments on the Proposed Regulations, which were issued in June 2014:
- Timelines for State Implementation. Will EPA relax the level of interim requirements for emission reductions by 2020 (or 2022, as suggested in recent press reports) and allow each state a more gradual or back-loaded schedule to meet final targets by 2030?
- Timelines for Filing State Implementation Plans. Will EPA delay or ease the threshold for granting waivers of the one-year requirement for filing single-state implementation plans or two-years for multi-state implementation plans?
- Credits for Early Action. Will EPA enable states to obtain credits or adjustments in baseline periods for early emission reduction actions that have already occurred or for acceleration of emission reductions achieved prior to 2020?
- Adjustments to the Four Building Blocks. Will EPA modify the four building blocks used to calculate each state’s achievable emission reductions, including changes in assumptions regarding achievable emission reductions under each building block?
Continue Reading A Watch List of Possible Changes in EPA’s Final Clean Power Plan
Supreme Court Decisions Raise Questions about Future Judicial Scrutiny of EPA’s Clean Power Plan
By Mark Perlis on
Posted in Clean Power Plan
Two of the Supreme Court’s major, end-of-term decisions turn on the deference the Court gives to agency determinations of the meaning of ambiguous clauses in complex regulatory statutes, applying the familiar Chevron framework. The Court’s less deferential applications of Chevron raise important questions about the deference courts might be expected to give to the scope…
U.S. Appeals Court Rejects, as Premature, Challenge to EPA’s Clean Power Plan
By Mark Perlis on
Posted in Clean Power Plan
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused to review challenges of EPA’s authority to adopt comprehensive regulations of carbon emissions from exiting power plants. A coal company, joined by 12 States, had asked the Court of Appeals to prohibit EPA from finalizing its Clean Power Plan on multiple…
FERC Outlines its Role in Implementing EPA’s Clean Power Plan
By Inside Energy on
Posted in Clean Power Plan, Electricity Grid
Earlier this year, FERC held four technical conferences to discuss the implications of state, regional and/or federal plans for compliance with EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) rule to set carbon emission limits for existing electricity generating units. A major issue raised was the impact of the CPP on electric grid reliability as coal-fired generators…