Full Title: Finding the Path to Clean Power Plan Opportunity: Preparing Now to Identify the Greatest Risks and Benefits
Author(s): Chris MacCracken and Matt Robison
Publisher(s): ICF International
Publication Date: July 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The release of the final rule for the Clean Power Plan (CPP) is likely to set off a mad dash among state regulators, utilities, and investors. States will have a number of critical design choices to evaluate as they move forward with their planning efforts—and a very short time to consider those choices and hear from the affected stakeholders. Initial state plans will be due within a year, final plans 1-2 years after. This will leave a narrow window for the lengthy tasks of analysis, stakeholder discussions, and state regulatory or legislative action.
Many states have launched their initial analytical process. The most forward-looking companies have already recognized just what a challenging task it will be to asses all of the potential combinations of compliance options and have begun taking steps to get ahead of the game by identifying their greatest threats and opportunities now.
What they are finding and quantifying is just how significant state compliance choices will be for their business. In ICF’s March, 2015 white paper Clean Power Plan: Bigger Risks, More Opportunities than You Think, we presented a case study of two sample states to show how substantial the impacts could be on individual generating units, entire utility generation portfolios, and developers of energy efficiency and renewables projects, using just two of the key design questions for all states—whether to adopt rate-based or mass-based standards and whether to go it alone or partner with other states in a regional trading system.