Official: '20 goals weighed by EPA

Honorable talks on emission plan

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering softening its stance on the timeline for states to meet early guidelines of the Clean Power Plan, Colette Honorable, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said Friday.

In its Clean Power Plan proposed last year, the EPA said Arkansas must reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by 41 percent by 2020, based on 2005 emission levels. The number rises to 44 percent by 2030, significantly higher than the country's average goal. Nationally, the agency sought to lower overall emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

Many Arkansas utility executives say meeting the 2020 deadline is an impossible task, an argument that officials in many states are making, said Honorable, the former chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

"I believe that the EPA is looking at that issue," said Honorable, who was in Little Rock to speak on "The Clean Power Plan and the Evolving Power Grid" for the Clinton School of Public Service. "I think the EPA is listening. I think they want to develop a plan that is flexible enough to allow the states to get on this journey with the ultimate goal of reaching the 2030 goals."

Honorable was confirmed to the position with the federal commission in December.

Meeting the 2020 carbon emissions mandate was one of the problems with the EPA's proposals, said John Bethel, executive director of the Arkansas commission's general staff.

"The [Arkansas commission] noted to the EPA the cost and reliability concerns [with the 2020 deadlines]," Bethel said. "We're awaiting the final rule [which will be released this summer] to see how they respond to that."

Utility executives in Arkansas met last year to discuss the EPA proposals.

In the early stages of the EPA's compliance timeline, the EPA is requiring that outdated coal plants be replaced with new-generation plants and the transmission lines necessary to carry the new power, Lanny Nickell, vice president of engineering at Little Rock-based Southwest Power Pool, said at one of those meetings.

Building new natural gas plants to replace closed coal plants, as well as the transmission system for those plants, cannot be done by 2020, Nickell said.

The country is at a crossroads, Honorable said.

"We have to decide today if we're going to work into our daily work environmental responsibilities," she said. "So how are we going to go about doing it? Through planning and collaboration, I think we can develop a plan that both insures the reliability of the electricity grid, is affordable and is environmentally responsible."

Business on 03/28/2015

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