NRECA: Clean Power Plan Needs Reliability Safety Valve

Last week, John Novak, Executive Director of Environmental Issues for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), authored an opinion piece in Power Magazine that spoke to the need for a reliability safety valve in the Clean Power Plan. The EPA’s plan was recently stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The opening salvo of Novak’s piece appears below.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan is arguably the most ambitious and far-reaching regulation in the agency’s history. America’s electric cooperatives oppose the rule for a variety of reasons, with its serious threat to electric reliability topping the list. So, even as the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) challenges the fundamental legality of the regulation in court, we are urging the EPA to incorporate into the rule a robust, dynamic reliability “safety valve.” This crucial regulatory mechanism would adjust or postpone the Clean Power Plan’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets to ensure that power generators could increase electricity output to meet unexpected contingencies.

You can read the full opinion piece online here.

PACE has been outspoken about the need for EPA to address reliability concerns under national climate measures such as the Clean Power Plan. PACE addressed these concerns to EPA officials during the latest round of public hearings on the agency’s carbon reduction mandate. Commentary from PACE and our official statement are available online.