Canada wants a piece of the action in President Obama’s disputed climate plan.
A delegation of Canadian industry officials wrapped up a two-day lobbying spree by meeting Thursday night with senior officials from the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and House and Senate energy committees.
The utility representatives from the Great White North are pressing administration officials and Congress to allow U.S. states to use their resources to comply with EPA’s emission rules for power plants.
The emission rules, known as the Clean Power Plan, are at the heart of Obama’s legacy project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — which many scientists say are causing climate change — and hone a major climate deal in Paris at the end of the year.
Canadian companies want a hand in making that happen by getting U.S. states to import more energy from its northern neighbor. They say that would increase demand for Canada’s wind and hydro-electric businesses and help the U.S. comply with the new EPA regulations, which have come under fire for being too stringent and risking regional power shortages.
But like many across the electricity sector these days, Canada appears to want assurances from Washington.
The Canadian Electricity Association, which led the delegation, “reinforced its principal recommendation” when meeting with administration officials, “namely, that the [EPA] grant states the flexibility to use the imports of non-emitting electricity from Canada as a [greenhouse gas]-reduction strategy in state compliance plans,” a delegation spokeswoman said in an email.
The emission regulations require states to meet specific emission reduction targets set by the EPA to reduce emissions from existing power plants. The EPA would have to approve plans from each state on how to meet the goals. Those plans would need to be submitted within the next two years. The EPA will finish writing the rules this summer.
It’s not a surprise that Canada would seek to play up the use of its resources in meeting U.S. environmental and energy goals. America’s neighbor to the north is tied into the U.S. power grid and is a party to U.S. regulatory decisions that ensure the lights stay on in both countries.
But some states are worried that the EPA rules, because they rely on state-specific goals, could re-balkanize the power grid and reverse nearly three decades of connectivity, in which large multi-state regions have become increasingly tied into the same system. This scenario could encumber states’ relationships with Canada.
In many cases, states like New York and others benefit from close partnerships with Canadian power utilities to deliver cheap hydropower and wind electricity to U.S. consumers.
The trip seemed more urgent than other delegation meetings. It was specifically focused on two major pieces of U.S. energy policy that would dictate the future direction of U.S.-Canada relations on infrastructure and resource sharing.
In addition to EPA’s Clean Power Plan, Canadians are concerned about a major energy policy plan that the Obama administration plans to issue at the end of the month.
The plan — known as the Quadrennial Energy Review — would help shape how the U.S. coordinates energy development with other countries in the hemisphere to strengthen energy security and environmental goals, according to officials. It is expected to propose dozens of policy recommendations, including proposals for new legislation.
“In consultations throughout the development of the [plan, the U.S. Energy Department] has said that the … infrastructure-related analysis would look at integration of U.S. and Canadian energy systems,” the Canadian delegation’s spokeswoman said. “Those messages were reinforced [in meetings April 8-9 with the Energy Department], commending the department’s attention to U.S.-Canada energy integration and exploring opportunities for enhancing the benefits of this integration.”
