Last week, the EPA said it’s scrapping Biden-era emission rules for coal and gas plants—and wants to wipe out its own power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from generators. Plenty of details remain up in the air…but utilities don’t have the luxury to twiddle their thumbs.
As the ink dries on the EPA’s announcement, orgs are already trying to figure out what actually changes (and what doesn’t) for their existing and future fleets as demand continues to climb.
The big question: Could the EPA’s rollback affect utilities’ integrated resource plans? We asked the energy pros in our newsletter audience, and their answers were all over the map: 45% said yes, 23% said no, and 32% said it’s too soon to say.
It would be “impossible” for the change not to impact utility planning, one respondent said. “Emission controls not only add significant capital cost to a project, but they also consume substantial auxiliary power.”
Meanwhile, another reader saw the wait-and-see approach as necessary: “Power plant regulations at the EPA are a legal minefield,” they said. “It may be years before this all plays out—and who can guess who's running the country by then?”
The utilities weigh in: EC also went directly to utility reps to get their initial reading of the tea leaves. The consensus? The impacts will hinge not only on the language of the rule itself, but also on decisions already embedded in utility planning and state regulations.
“GHG rules are only a single variable that goes into long-term planning scenarios,” an Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) representative told Energy Central. The EPA’s recent decision doesn’t change the existing state environmental regulations that OPPD must meet, and the utility is still committed to reducing emissions.
We heard a similar sentiment from United Power CEO Mark Gabriel. It isn’t clear whether “there will be any immediate impact in the short to mid-term,” he told us. And the Colorado-based electric cooperative is sticking to its coal retirement plans.
The takeaway: “Planning for the winds of political change is never a good idea,” Gabriel said. That’s why utilities are trying to play the long game, weighing potential federal requirements against how to best serve their customers over the long haul.