How Will Clean Power Plan Compliance Be Tracked?

Critics of U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan frequently argue that requiring states to reduce carbon emissions will threaten the grid's reliability and drive up utility bills.

Those are the big-ticket items to worry about, said Brenda Brickhouse, environment vice president for the Tennessee Valley Authority.  She's also uneasy about something else:  creating an inexpensive, uncomplicated compliance program to keep track of emission reduction data.

"I'm concerned about the compliance infrastructure that may be required for counting for all of these various factors and building blocks and translating it, and all of the verification monitoring and reporting," Brickhouse told EnergyWire after speaking on a panel about ways utilities can work with states to meet EPA's carbon reduction goals.

Broadly, EPA has asked states to reduce their carbon emissions by 30 percent from 2012 levels by 2030.  The agency issued a proposed rule last June and expects to release a final one this summer.

Each state has its own goal, and there are four main target areas, including adding nuclear energy and reducing demand through energy efficiency, to get there.  EPA laid out those four building blocks as a road map that states can follow.

If states choose to use those building blocks, figuring out what kind of data to collect and keeping track of that information could be difficult, she said.

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