Dive Brief:
- Oregon state officials say they will not be able to comply with new carbon pollution standards unless the Environmental Protection Agency counts the state's energy efficiency programs toward emissions targets.
- In comments filed by Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ),the state recommends that the EPA allow states to use the emission rate of marginal resources in their regional grid to credit investments in energy efficiency. It also wants demand-side efficiency measures to count toward emission goals, as they reduce energy consumption as a whole.
- The EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan would leave 88 percent of the state's investment in efficiency unable to count toward pollution targets because the rules would only consider investments which could be tied back to in-state generation.
Dive Insight:
Oregon will have no coal-fired plants within a decade and sources much of its power from renewable and hydroelectric resources. Despite that, SNL Energy reports the state will need a change of heart from federal regulators in order to comply with the emissions targets because much of Oregon's investment has been aimed at regional resources.
"EPA's use of the inter-connected power system as its regulatory framework in the proposal will achieve significant, cost-effective emission reductions, primarily because it affords the States, utilities and power plants the flexibility to reduce emissions through a range of methods," DEQ said in its Oct. 16 comments. However, the state said it is "critical that Oregon and other states be allowed to account for the full extent of emission reductions achieved through investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency in state compliance plans."
According to SNL's analysis of Oregon's comments, only 12% of the state's carbon reductions related to efficiency investments would qualify towards the EPA's proposed rule.