The nation’s top utility regulator is considering using a reliability “safety valve” to allow more time for states and utilities to comply with EPA’s aggressive rules governing emissions from power plants.
The idea would help states and utilities guard against power outages and other calamities that many fear could occur under the rules.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Cheryl LaFleur discussed the safety valve as a key focus during the last in a series of technical conferences held in St. Louis Tuesday to address concerns raised by the emission rules, which are at the center of the Obama administration’s climate agenda. Many scientists believe emissions from burning fossil fuels is driving manmade climate change.
LaFleur told those at the meeting that this is “really our last chance…to put more meat on the bone” and add specifics to the safety valve proposal, which has been raised by utilities, states and lawmakers as a necessary addition to the EPA rules to maintain a reliable power grid.
Industry officials and states want the commission to push EPA to include the safety valve measure, which still must be drafted, in the rules expected to be finalized this summer. LaFleur’s comments suggest the commission will likely step up to that challenge.
Commission officials have pointed to the work it has done to support reliability under EPA’s other pollution rules, where it had to initiate a measure to allow power plants more time to comply for reliability reasons. The safety valve for the new emission rules, known as the Clean Power Plan, would act similarly.
LaFleur is the Democratic head of the commission, but she has always said that her primary focus is to be an “honest broker” in evaluating the impact of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. She also has said that the EPA plan poses real concerns for the future of the electricity markets. She has said the markets were not designed to handle what the EPA plan proposes.
The EPA plan sets state-specific targets for lowering carbon dioxide emissions from the existing fleet of power plants. States would have to submit compliance plans to the EPA for approval, using a variety of different means to comply.
Critics argue that the rules go beyond the EPA’s authority and have been characterized as “overreach” and a “power grab.”
