Dive Brief:
- Ameren Corp., which generates 70% of its electricity generation from coal, released a white paper suggesting changes in the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) that would make it easier for fossil fuel-dependent electric utilities to support it.
- In "Alternative to the EPA’s Proposed Greenhouse Gas Rules," Ameren is conciliatory but critical and, like many other utilities, proposes EPA replace interim 2020 goals with a “flexible glide path” and extend to 2035 the 2030 deadline to cut greenhouse gas emissions 30% below 2005 levels.
- The Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, the Edison Electric Institute, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Missouri Public Service Commission, the Murray Energy Corp., and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity have all said the EPA rule is not legal and too costly.
Dive Insight:
The EPA proposal “appears to be less concerned with the economic or reliability implications,” the Ameren white paper asserts, and "designates arbitrary benchmarks based on flawed assumptions, all while raising serious questions about the agency’s legal authority. Perhaps most notably, however, the EPA’s plan reflects scant interest—if any—in the actual ability of utilities to achieve the EPA’s aims without sparking severe repercussions to American homes and businesses in the form of higher costs and reliability risks.”
Ameren is the first coal-dependent utility to make a formal move toward consensus. Its alternative plan would, it says, meet CPP goals by 2035 and save the company $4 billion. It would also prevent a state from not being credited for emissions reductions after shuttering a coal plant because emissions would decline proportionally to the power production decline.
A Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign spokesperson said Ameren's paper is an important transition but did not think more compliance time is needed.
