On August 21, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule as a replacement to the 2015 Clean Power Plan (CPP). The EPA had been expected to repeal the CPP ever since the former head of the department, Scott Pruitt, announced the agency’s intention to do so in October 2017.¹ The new rule aims to create guidelines for states to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and is subject to a 60-day comment period. The proposed rule will likely lead to legal challenges from environmental and clean energy groups. The EPA is hoping to finalize the ACE rule by early 2019.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Robert Powelson recently concluded the shortest term of any leader in the regulator’s history. His departure leaves a considerable challenge for the remaining four commissioners to avoid gridlock with several critical policy discussions on the docket.

In the last 10 years, coal power generation has fallen from providing more than half of the electricity in the United States to less than 30% today. While that number held steady for 2016 and 2017, coal plant owners have announced 13 GW of planned retirements for 2018, the largest since a record 15 GW retired in 2015. Another 10 GW of capacity is already planned for retirement over the
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Some market participants are expressing concerns over “around-market” or “extra-market” energy policies, such as zero-emissions credits for nuclear generators and subsidies for renewable generators. These policies are found in energy markets, including independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs), which are accountable for administering their regions’ wholesale electricity markets and providing reliability planning for the regions’ bulk electricity system.

Coal’s share of the U.S. generation mix fell 9.6% from the prior year to 23.7% in March as the shares of natural gas, nuclear, hydro, and non-hydro renewables grew 3.5%, 1.9%, 1.3%, and 2.7% respectively. This shift was caused by the confluence of coal plant retirements and mothballing resulting from the protracted downturn in power prices due to low gas prices, weather-subdued demand, and the ongoing effects of the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule.