FERC Seeks Comments On How To Advise EPA Regarding the Reliability Impact Of Clean Air Act Rules

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Contact

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice on Jan. 30, 2012 seeking comments on a Staff White Paper that proposes procedures for a type of FERC action which has no precedent and is based on uncertain statutory authority. The proposed procedures address how FERC should advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with respect to potential reliability issues associated with electric generators that may be forced to shut down due to an inability to comply with EPA air quality rules.

The Notice has been issued in the midst of Congressional pressure for FERC to do something to address such reliability issues, even though FERC itself has no statutory authority over generation adequacy and no experience modeling potential impacts from plant shutdowns. That the Notice simply distributes a staff proposal for comment, with no Commissioner comments, may reflect differences of opinion among Commissioners as to what involvement, if any, FERC should have with regard to opining on generation sufficiency.

Background

EPA finalized national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants from electric generating units (EGUs), commonly known as the "Mercury and Air Toxics Standards" (MATS), in December 2011. All EGUs must be in compliance with the standards within three years, but one additional year may be granted if necessary for the installation control facilities. EPA stated that its internal analysis projected only a modest level of EGU retirements as a result of the standards and did not anticipate that such retirements would adversely affect electric reliability. Further, EPA stated that there are likely to be few, if any, cases in which it is not possible to mitigate a reliability issue within the four-year compliance deadline.

Please see full alert below for more information.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

Written by:

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Contact
more
less

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide