Most states can meet 2020 CO2 target, study says

OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2015. Just over 30 states are at least halfway toward meeting early CO2 emissions targets called for by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed regulations for existing power plants, according to an advocacy group's study.

At least 31 states have taken actions through fuel switching, coal retirements or implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy standards that have them in position to meet EPA's interim carbon emission rate targets, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) study released on 3 June.

Of those states, 14 can meet the 2020 interim target based on prior actions, the study said. The group includes eight of the nine members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The ninth RGGI state, Vermont, is not covered by the Clean Power Plan because it has no fossil fuel-fired generation. Other states among the 14 are California, which has an economy-wide cap-and-trade program, New Jersey, New Mexico, Hawaii, Ohio and Kentucky.

EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan calls for states to meet a final CO2 emissions rate target in 2030, with interim targets for 2020-29 as a way to ensure progress toward the binding final targets set for 2030. States must meet the interim targets on average over the 10 years leading up to 2030. The UCS analysis looks at the ability of states to meet the 2020 benchmark EPA proposed as part of the overall 2020-29 average.

Nine states, including Washington, Colorado and Alabama, are three-quarters of the way to meeting their 2020 benchmarks. Another eight, including Georgia, North Carolina and Oregon, are at least halfway there, according to the study.

"If these states stay the course, and further develop their renewable energy potential, reduce their energy use, and possibly even join forces with their neighboring states, they should have no trouble meeting their 2030 goals," UCS senior energy analyst Jeremy Richardson said, citing state programs that are already in place before the EPA's final standards come out this summer.

Twenty-nine states have renewable energy standards, 24 have energy efficiency standards and 39 states have closed or plan to close a cumulative 47GW of coal capacity between 2012-20, according to UCS.

A dozen states have sued EPA to block the Clean Power Plan. About half of those states have programs in place that put them halfway toward the proposed 2020 target, the study says.