Meaningful environmental
policies can coexist with
economic development, Arkansas’
Department of Environmental
Quality director
said Monday about the state’s
planning for compliance
with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s Clean
Power Plan.
Department of Environmental
Quality Director
Becky Keogh added at a
news conference jointly hosted
with Arkansas Public Service
Commission Chairman
Ted Thomas that the state
should pursue “plentiful and
diverse energy resources” as
a part of a “balanced energy
future.”
“I believe we’re ready,”
Thomas told the room filled
with state, industry and environmental
leaders and reporters.
The public service
commission has a team that
has already been looking into
the plan, he added.
The first stakeholder
meeting will be Oct. 9, and
the state has about another
year after that to submit a
plan for implementing the
rule, which targets carbon
dioxide emissions related to
climate change.
State officials can also request
an extension in a year,
as long as they provide a
progress report. Emissions
reductions must start in
2022, but states can be rewarded
for reducing them
earlier.
Keogh and Thomas said
the state had gotten most of
what it wanted in an earlier
lawsuit against the Clean
Power Plan’s first draft,
which would have had Arkansas
facing some of the
highest mandated carbon
dioxide reductions.
Litigation, as well as continued
dialogue with the
EPA, helped the state end up
in the middle of the pack in
terms of emissions reduction
requirements nationwide,
Keogh and Thomas said.
Arkansas was previously in
the top five states needing to
reduce emissions.
Now, the state faces a 36
percent reduction in emissions,
instead of 45 percent
— a reduction Thomas called
a “relief” when he heard
about it. But the state already
anticipates reducing carbon
dioxide emissions without
any Clean Power Plan-related
controls by as much as
12.7 percent by 2020, Keogh
said.
The plan affects 56 generation
units at 19 plants across
the state, although some of
those plants are not consistently
in operation and are
considered standby facilities,
Keogh and Thomas said.
Nationwide, the biggest
reductions are required in
most of the central states and
the Rust Belt.
Entergy Arkansas’ proposal
to quit using coal at its
White Bluff plant near Redfield
would have a “significant”
further impact on what
the state has to do to reduce
emissions, Keogh said.
But whether that proposal
will go through depends
on the resolution of the 1999
Regional Haze Rule’s implementation
in Arkansas, which
is being disputed among EPA
and Arkansas Department of
Environmental Quality officials.
The state was granted
a motion to intervene in the
case, which led to a federal
implementation plan for Arkansas,
on Monday. Entergy
Arkansas plans to replace
coal at the White Bluff plant
with natural gas, solar and/
or wind power.
“I think it will get us to
landing that goal in 2030,”
Keogh said, referring to the
Clean Power Plan’s ultimate
date for reducing carbon dioxide
emissions.
The startup of Big River
Steel in Osceola could add
problems to the state’s effort
to reduce emissions, however,
Thomas said.
In response to the news
conference, the Sierra Club’s
Arkansas chapter — which
favored the Clean Power
Plan — released a statement
supporting the Department
of Environmental Quality
and Public Service Commission
for working together to
comply with the rule.
“By working together with
all stakeholders, Arkansas
can take charge of writing its
own plan that will dramatically
improve our health, our
environment, and our economy,”
the statement reads.
Arkansas Attorney General
Leslie Rutledge has joined
several states in a lawsuit
against the EPA over the
final Clean Power Plan issued
Aug. 3, but Keogh and
Thomas said their agencies
did not ask for the lawsuit
and are instead monitoring
it as they move forward with
plans to implement the new
carbon rule.
“We have to be ready either
way,” Thomas said. At
this point, Keogh and Thomas
said they’re waiting to
see if the lawsuit will clarify
questions about state and
federal authority in implementing
the plan.
“We hope that it will …
move in favor of Arkansas,”
Keogh said.
Exactly what the state’s
energy future will look like
will depend on stakeholder
input and future prices,
Thomas said. He said he’d
like the state to take an approach
that would help natural
gas be a big player in
the state. He also said that if
prices of solar power generation
keep dropping, the state
could invest in major projects
there, too.
The state’s final plan must
be approved by the Arkansas
Legislature, which this year
passed Act 382, barring the
Department of Environmental
Quality from submitting a
state compliance plan on the
Clean Power Plan to the EPA
without Legislative Council
or governor approval.
Before that, the agency
will co-host the stakeholder
meetings to decide how
to proceed with the plan in
Arkansas.
“The stakeholder process
is important,” Thomas said