Missouri pushing ahead to meet EPA's final standards

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the final rule for the federally mandated Clean Power Plan Aug. 3 and Missouri is pushing forward to make it happen.

The plan is designed to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants relying on fossil fuels while keeping electricity affordable, according to an EPA fact sheet. With its recent announcement, the EPA established final emission guidelines that states around the country will be required to abide before the agency is forced to step in and implement federally mandated regulations to meet the national standards, Ed Smith, the safe energy director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE), said.

For existing power plants the overall rule set forth by the EPA was created to cut 2005 level emissions by 32 percent by 2030, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

"This is an incentive for Missouri to do it right," Smith said. "There's flexibility built into the EPA's reduction process, but states know their energy portfolio better than the EPA."

Missouri is the only state with a portfolio that allows utilities to meet requirements set forth by the renewable energy standards (RES) by purchasing renewable energy credits (REC), Smith previously told the Fulton Sun.

Development for the Clean Power Plan began in June 2014 when the EPA, under President Obama's Climate Action Plan, proposed a policy to reduce carbon emissions which were creating environmental and health concerns, according to the EPA. In addition to creating problems for individual health and the nation's economy, the EPA made the suggestion with environmental elements in mind.

The Climate Action Plan has a standard to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to measure 17 percent below the emission levels in 2005. The goal is to meet this standard by 2020, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. By 2025, in order to participate in the international climate agreement in Paris, the U.S. has a target to reduce emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels.

The Missouri Clean Energy Coalition is comprised of various stakeholders including clean energy business, environmental organizations and academic institutions, according to the Clean Air Missouri campaign. The Coalition, Smith said, was created to grow and promote clean energy in Missouri, but barriers have gotten in the way.

"The economy in clean energy is growing, but there are still barriers preventing it from reaching its potential," Smith said. "There's still litigation pending implementing the renewable energy standard also known as Prop C."

The original standards, known as Proposition C during the 2008 vote, required utilities companies to increase their use of renewable energy. Because of Missouri's portfolio which allows the purchase of RECs from out-of-state plants calculations of the renewable energy produced by Ameren has caused disagreements between the Circuit Court and the MCE.

Despite this, the state is moving forward to comply with the EPA's standards, Smith said.

"This all comes down to the fact that we're talking about climate change and that we're emitting carbon dioxide with no plan to reduce it," he added. "Missouri on the whole is doing poorly in energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment."

In order to comply with the EPA's standards and improve energy efficiency in Missouri the Department of Natural Resources will meet in Jefferson City to move onto Missouri's next steps to reduce carbon emissions on Sept. 23.

Smith believes the first areas of Missouri that need the most development in energy efficiency is within low-income communities.

"Low-income communities don't have money upfront, but by starting there we can reduce their energy bills and create jobs which will improve the local economy," Smith said. "We won't know what the DNR's plan is until the 23rd, but the MCE's initial focus is how we can get the savings into low-income communities. Those are the areas that need it most because they have older buildings and starting there will save them money immediately."

In Missouri 80 percent of the state's energy comes from burning coal, Smith said.

"Because we don't have a price on carbon our energy is pretty cheap," he added. "The plan will realize there is a price that coal plays in our environment and our health."

Ameren Missouri has already started taking steps to change the state's reliance on burning coal. In August Ameren announced a three-way partnership with ECAP, LLC and Enginuity in order to develop a new source of energy using corn and other agricultural biomass.

Ameren uses energy created in out-of-state plants, such as wind farms in Iowa, but turning to biomass will reduce Missouri's reliance on outside fuel sources while also improving the state's economy by creating jobs locally, according to a press release.

In an earlier edition of this story the Missouri Clean Energy Coalition was identified as the Missouri Clean Air Coalition, this edit has been created to fix that mistake.