press releases
For Immediate Release: May 12, 2015
Contact: Regina L. Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org
WASHINGTON—The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council have released new resources to assist States' efforts to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. The Multistate Coordination Resources for Clean Power Plan Compliance guide offers ideas about how States can lower the barriers to working together on coordinated compliance.
The resource guide, which was funded by the Department of Energy, began as part of a project to bring State agencies together to discuss energy and environmental issues that affect States in the Eastern Interconnection as well as the rest of the country. The EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan (Section 111d of the Clean Air Act) regulates the emissions of greenhouse gases on a state-by-state basis. Whether or not they support the EPA's plan, States are exploring how to overcome institutional barriers that make multi-state compliance more difficult and are tasked with developing compliance plans by the summer of 2016.
Three valuable tools are included in the guide: a multistate planning checklist, a legislative language examples checklist (under development) and a sample memorandum of understanding for multistate coordination. The planning checklist is an important tool to help States organize their decisions to assess the benefits of multi-state versus solo approaches. Overall, this guide is a practical toolkit, as it provides foundational questions and considerations that all States can apply to their own plans, establishes common definitions and functions as a roadmap toward creating meaningful State plans and multistate engagement.
“A multistate resource guide such this can benefit all of our member States,” said NARUC Executive Director Charles Gray. “It leaves open the choice to go it alone or to coordinate across state lines on compliance policy, recognizing that each State and region is unique but that these states are interconnected by power flows and markets. Also, the process of developing these State plans will be complex and coordination may prove frustrating, and we can help reduce some of that frustration by providing a workable starting point.”
On May 8, EISPC held a webinar focusing on multistate options for compliance with the clean power plan. Through an additional US DOE grant, NARUC and EISPC will convene a summer 2015 meeting for all interested stakeholders (commissions, state agencies, power companies, legislators and others) to better understand the merits, challenges and practical implications of multistate coordination.
A copy of the guide is available by clicking here.
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NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.
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