Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
3/07/2014
The Environmental Protection Agency could incorporate end-use energy efficiency programs into its anticipated rule setting emission standards for existing power plants, according to a paper published by the Harvard Environmental Law Program’s Policy Initiative this week. “End-use energy efficiency programs have been adequately demonstrated as cost-effective methods for achieving energy savings and reducing air pollution,” the paper says. “Stakeholders support these programs to comply with performance standards. Under the symmetry principle, EPA must then account for achievable emission reductions from end-use energy efficiency programs in setting the stringency of its emission guidelines for existing power plants.”
The paper notes that as the EPA is crafting the rule, which it is hoping to release in draft form by June, many discussions surrounding the Agency’s options appear to reflect a consensus that end-use energy efficiency (EE) is “a cost-effective method for reducing GHGs”—and that many stakeholders, including states and industry and environmental groups, have asked the EPA to consider incorporating such programs into the guidelines. However, there has been disagreement about exactly what role EE should play, the paper said, with some arguing that EE should be part of the “best system of emission reduction” (BSER) and “drive the stringency of the performance standard,” and others arguing that EE should be available merely as an equivalent means of complying with “within the fence line” standards for emitting sources.
The paper states, “The Clean Air Act affords flexibility in setting performance standards, particularly for existing sources. Under the symmetry principle, if a system of emission reduction is ‘adequately demonstrated’ now, that system should drive the performance standard. EE should be part of the ‘best system of emission reduction’ for existing power plants because it is adequately demonstrated, cost-effective, imposes minimal environmental costs and reduces overall energy requirements. Moreover, emission reductions from EE can be enforceable, permanent, surplus and quantifiable as those terms are defined by EPA. The Agency can draw on long-standing state, private sector and federal methodologies for measuring and verifying emission reductions from end-use EE.”
