Life Without Building Block 4

Deck: 

Energy Efficiency under EPA’s Final Clean Power Plan.

Fortnightly Magazine - October 2015
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Supporters and opponents alike will stake their claims about the final Clean Power Plan (CPP), announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this past August. Yet, when all the political issues are stripped away, energy efficiency (EE) remains the most cost-effective route to compliance. It continues to yield benefits for existing power plant owners, consumers, the environment, and the overall economy.

Known among policy experts as EPA's 111(d) rule, the CPP is designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing fossil-fired electric-generating units (EGUs) with a capacity greater than 25 megawatts. The CPP will be implemented through state-based compliance plans. And while each state's emission reduction target varies according to its resource mix and other factors, the CPP is designed to achieve nationwide CO2 emission reductions totaling 32 percent by 2030, relative to a 2005 baseline.

In the CPP draft rule issued in June 2014, EPA built up state emission reduction targets through four key "building blocks" as part of an emissions reduction strategy:

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