{"id":996,"date":"2011-12-05T11:08:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T16:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=996"},"modified":"2012-06-26T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T18:26:50","slug":"the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director<\/p>\n

An ongoing battle over the potential tensions between air quality regulations and electric grid reliability has picked up steam recently, as two EPA air pollution regulations near the implementation phase: the cross-state air-pollution rule and the mercury and air toxics standard.
\nCongressional Republicans and many in the electricity industry are claiming that these rules, if implemented on their current timeline, might cause enough plant retirements or temporary plant outages that the power grid would crash, resulting in major blackouts. This suggestion has been vigorously opposed by Congressional Democrats, the Obama Administration, and environmentalists, who claim it is nothing more than a scare tactic being adopted to delay implementation of important new air quality regulations.
\nMost technical analyses favor the side of the Administration, though not unequivocally. The Department of Energy released a report<\/a>\u00a0 December 1st finding that even under \u201cstringent assumptions,\u201d adequate reserve margins for reliability \u201ccan be met in all regions,\u201d although it noted that some local areas may need to address particular reliability concerns on a case-by-case basis. An analysis\u00a0by M.J. Bradley and Associates also found<\/a> that the air regulations caused no unmanageable reliability problems. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an industry self-regulatory body charged with developing reliability standards, is somewhat less optimistic; its recent 2011 reliability report<\/a>\u00a0suggests that utilities may need some additional time to comply with EPA regulations in order to address reliability concerns. (A previous post\u00a0<\/a>describes NERC\u2019s 2010 conclusions). NERC\u2019s analysis has drawn criticism for using unrealistic, overly harsh assumptions about how EPA regulations would be met. On the other hand, industry representatives have faulted<\/a> the Department of Energy\u2019s report for not examining the full range of reliability concerns.
\nEven NERC, however, recognizes one clear solution to help guard against any potential reliability problems: more aggressive implementation of energy efficiency and demand response policies. By reducing overall energy demand and peak energy demand in particular, these policies contribute enormously to ensuring that we have the supply margins necessary for a reliable grid. And they are some of the most cost-effective solutions out there\u2014much cheaper than building new supply. They\u2019re also a clean solution that avoids the current alleged (and unacceptable) tradeoff between reliable electricity and clean air. If we could get Congressional and regulatory attention more focused on energy efficiency, perhaps we could avoid the need for these heated debates on reliability altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director An ongoing battle over the potential tensions between air quality regulations and electric grid reliability has picked up steam recently, as two EPA air pollution regulations near the implementation phase: the cross-state air-pollution rule and the mercury and air toxics standard. Congressional Republicans and many in the electricity industry are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5680,5681],"tags":[9432,9434,9433],"class_list":{"0":"post-996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-clean-energy","7":"category-grid","8":"tag-energy","9":"tag-energy-efficiency","10":"tag-grid","11":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director An ongoing battle over the potential tensions between air quality regulations and electric grid reliability has picked up steam recently, as two EPA air pollution regulations near the implementation phase: the cross-state air-pollution rule and the mercury and air toxics standard. Congressional Republicans and many in the electricity industry are […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shelley Welton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sabincenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sabincenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shelley Welton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shelley Welton\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d96b7333fc81bff00148b58154d8d9be\"},\"headline\":\"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":410,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Energy\",\"Energy Efficiency\",\"Grid\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Clean Energy\",\"Grid\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/05\\\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Law Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/files\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/files\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png\",\"width\":2752,\"height\":260,\"caption\":\"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/sabincenter\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d96b7333fc81bff00148b58154d8d9be\",\"name\":\"Shelley Welton\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/author\\\/swelto\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog","og_description":"By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director An ongoing battle over the potential tensions between air quality regulations and electric grid reliability has picked up steam recently, as two EPA air pollution regulations near the implementation phase: the cross-state air-pollution rule and the mercury and air toxics standard. Congressional Republicans and many in the electricity industry are […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/","og_site_name":"Climate Law Blog","article_published_time":"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00","author":"Shelley Welton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sabincenter","twitter_site":"@sabincenter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shelley Welton","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/"},"author":{"name":"Shelley Welton","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/person\/d96b7333fc81bff00148b58154d8d9be"},"headline":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate","datePublished":"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/"},"wordCount":410,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization"},"keywords":["Energy","Energy Efficiency","Grid"],"articleSection":["Clean Energy","Grid"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/","name":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate - Climate Law Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-05T16:08:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-26T18:26:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2011\/12\/05\/the-air-quality-vs-electricity-grid-reliability-debate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Air Quality vs. Electricity Grid Reliability Debate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/","name":"Climate Law Blog","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization","name":"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2023\/02\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2023\/02\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png","width":2752,"height":260,"caption":"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/sabincenter"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/person\/d96b7333fc81bff00148b58154d8d9be","name":"Shelley Welton","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/author\/swelto\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}