The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) condemned the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new rule that would make it almost impossible for coal-fired power plants to continue in operation, stating that implementing the rule would simultaneously drive up costs and drive down reliability of America’s electric grid. Following is the EPSA’s press release from May 11:

Statement From the Electric Power Supply Association on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Rule to Revise New Source Performance Standards for Electric Generating Units 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Newly proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules to drastically limit power plant emissions come as grid operators and reliability watchdogs warn that power plants needed to keep the lights on in the face of rising demand, changing weather patterns, and increasing amounts of dispatchable generation sources are retiring too quickly.  

EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler issued the following statement Thursday.  

“Once again, aspirational policy is getting ahead of operational reality. If finalized, these aggressive rules will undoubtedly drive up energy costs and lead to a substantial number of power plant retirements when experts have warned that we are already facing a reliability crisis due to accelerated retirements of dispatchable resources. Efforts to reduce emissions and deploy zero-emitting technology must be coupled with an understanding of how a rule like this will impact reliability. 

EPSA member companies are actively investing in an “all of the above” energy future, building cost-effective, low-and zero-emission resources, including utilizing carbon capture technology. At the same time, our members continue to operate much-needed dispatchable resources that ensure system reliability and will be needed for decades to come.  

We are also working to find durable and sustainable solutions to enable the long-term energy expansion that will be needed to support the electrification of industry, transportation, and buildings. But this proposal ignores the electric reliability concerns that exist now and have been highlighted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and grid operators like PJM Interconnection.  

For the EPA to issue proposed rules that are likely to drive power plant retirements while simultaneously undertaking separate actions to significantly increase demand for electricity due to the electrification of the nation’s vehicle fleet creates the conditions for a reliability failure.  

Electric grid reliability is not a partisan or ideological issue. The grid is agnostic to politics. When the system cannot generate and deliver sufficient power to meet demand reliably, everyone loses.  

Our nation already has a sizable and difficult challenge to confront regarding electric reliability. When proposed regulations drove coal from the market via the Clean Power Plan, natural gas resources were available to ensure reliability. This rule could cause a similar outcome that this time will drive lower-emitting, cleaner natural gas resources off the system. If it does, there are neither suitable nor sufficient generating resources available to support the existing and increasing demands of the electric grid – the performance characteristics of the resources expected to fill this looming gap are different from the resources they would replace; they are not interchangeable on a one-to-one basis. We are not slow walking into a reliability crisis – if this rule is finalized, we will be choosing to run toward that outcome. A self-inflicted reliability crisis should be unacceptable to all Americans.” 

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The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide about 150,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @EPSAnews.