We, the Regulators
The way forward, amidst new markets, technologies, and environmental imperatives.
NARUC’s incoming President – from the Montana PSC – shares his vision on how utility regulators should navigate today’s industry disruptions.
Mercury
EPA's Clean Power Plan
Charting a Path Forward
With respect to the Clean Power Plan, the question is whether EPA will address the major issues and reinforce its positions in advance of the anticipated legal challenges.
High Court Takes Heat Out of Mercury Rule
On Monday, the Supreme Court released its 5-4 decision, which said EPA must take into account the cost of its regulations at the initial stage – the one where it determines that regulation of hazardous emissions from electric power plants would be “appropriate and necessary.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must – first – consider the costs of compliance before fixing a specific cap on mercury emissions. What’s next?
PJM's Three-Way Proposal
A re-defined capacity product, revised parameters for generator performance, and a new role for demand response.
The proposal creates a new capacity product called the “Capacity Performance Resource.”
Playing Safe with Capacity Markets
PJM would minimize risk, but so did regulation.
Changes envisioned by PJM call for ever more structured markets, further reducing the scope of the competitive landscape from which RTOs arose. They may produce a system that is actually more costly and less innovative than regulation.
Keeping a Lid on Coal Ash
EPA’s rule said to favor repurposing and recycling – over landfills or disposal ponds.
The EPA’s new final rule marks a turning point in the handling of coal fly ash. EPA has tried to balance the needs of utilities with existing coal ash deposits and the needs of communities that are worried that such ponds will leak into waterways, or even worse, burst open and wreak havoc. In the process, it’s pleased few.
From Coal to Gas
Regulatory and environmental challenges for power plant conversions under the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
Converting a power plant from coal to natural gas triggers a host of environmental challenges and regulatory issues. Operators could be trading one set of regulatory obligations, liabilities, and costs for another, equally problematic, set of liabilities and costs.
Coal After MATS
A strategy for completely removing mercury from environmental emissions.
Coal-fired power plants subject to EPA’s MATS rule can try a biological treatment option to remove mercury emissions from the environment.
Reliability vs. Resiliency
Prevent problems, or wait and respond when something happens?
FERC holds conference on electric reliability, asks about standards for resiliency – not just to prevent problems, but how to respond once they occur.
Energy Disconnect
Misguided policies threaten resource adequacy.
Resource planning is grinding to a halt. From EPA regulations to irrational markets, today’s policy missteps threaten tomorrow’s reliability.