By Michael Brooks
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold four technical conferences next year to discuss the effects of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan on reliability and wholesale electricity markets.
FERC announced the conferences in response to a request from three Republican lawmakers, including Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who will likely become the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee when Republicans take control of the Senate in January. The Republicans said in a letter to FERC that the EPA “lacks the mission and the expertise to determine what is necessary to maintain the reliability of the nation’s electric grid.”
The first conference will be held on Feb. 19, with a “National Overview” session led by the commission itself. It will be a part of FERC’s monthly open meeting, which will start an hour earlier to accommodate the conference. Staff will conduct three more regional conferences in D.C., St. Louis and Denver on dates to be announced.
Participants in the first conference will discuss whether state regulators “have the appropriate tools to identify reliability and/or market issues that may arise” as a result of compliance with the plan, as well as how to coordinate with RTOs on how to comply.
“The commission clearly has a role to play in ensuring that the nation’s energy markets and infrastructure adapt to support compliance with the proposed Clean Power Plan,” FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said. “These technical conferences will be an opportunity for the commission to hear from a wide range of stakeholders across the country on issues related to reliability, market operations and energy infrastructure.”
Murkowski said she appreciated FERC announcing the conferences. The conferences are “no substitute for EPA’s failure to engage FERC and [the Department of Energy] in a formal, documented process to address the impact on electric reliability of EPA’s series of major rulemakings in recent years,” she said.
“I remain hopeful, however, that the conferences will be useful to develop a better public record on these crucial questions, and I will remain as vigilant on this issue as I have been since 2011.”
Republicans have made blunting the EPA’s Clean Power Plan a top priority for when they take full control of Congress, following a wave of Republican victories in Senate elections in November. (See GOP Election Victories Unlikely to Thwart EPA Carbon Plan.) One of the casualties was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the current chair of the Energy Committee. (See related story, Honorable Clears Senate Energy Committee.)
