Dive Brief:

• Market modeling for the EPA Clean Power Plan would cause a shift to natural gas that would cut the Texas coal fleet’s 2020 output 52% below the 2012 level to 72 million megawatt-hours, a change that will be “drastic” for Texas grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas and seriously impact Texas electricity customers, according to Luminant CEO Mac McFarland.
• The Luminant CEO addressed commissioners from the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), along with officials from the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, at a PUCT meeting on how the EPA’s proposed emissions reduction rule would impact Texas electric generation and transmission.

Dive Insight:

Luminant is Texas’ biggest retail power generator with a mix of coal, natural gas, nuclear, and wind.

Luminant’s CEO said the EPA rule “oversteps the law.” Cutting emissions in Texas “makes no difference“ globally, McFarland said, and the “reality” of EPA’s “lofty” rule overestimates the potential for increased power plant efficiency and renewables production and “doesn’t balance the economy, energy supply, reliability and the environment.”  

U.S. greenhouse gases were 17% of the world total in 2011, with power generation creating a third of that, McFarland noted, while emissions are increasing in “China, Russia, India, developed countries and emerging economies all over the world.”