Natural Gas

Many critics of EPA's imminent maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule to cut power plants' air toxics appear to be shifting from outright opposition to the rule toward finding a way to implement it without harming electric grid reliability and supplies -- most likely by extending the rule's compliance deadlines.

Debate has shifted from “not whether, but how,” one industry source says. “We'd like to see some change from the fixed, three-year deadline” and that mechanism needs to be clearly articulated in the final rule, the source says.

EPA children's health advisers are urging the agency to expand its pending two-year study of potential drinking water impacts from the natural gas extraction process hydraulic fracturing -- known as fracking -- to better take into account risks to children even as Republican lawmakers step up their calls for EPA to scrap the study altogether.

EPA has released several data quality documents outlining how it plans to quality check its massive two-year study into the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water, a move that could help to quell criticism from states and GOP lawmakers about a lack of transparency in how the agency plans to meet data quality requirements in the study.

Grid operators, states and others are urging federal agencies to better coordinate their efforts to assess the potential adverse electric grid reliability impacts of EPA's utility sector air rules, including better analysis of how to preserve reliability and clearer details on agencies' statutory authority to address possible reliability impacts.