States that opt to pursue a mass-based trading approach to achieve federal Clean Power Plan (CPP) requirements will have the opportunity to decide how to distribute allowances. The total value of the allowances to be distributed is likely to be significant, making allowance distribution a key decision for states. The Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative presents this white paper to assist states in making allowance distribution decisions. Continue reading »
The Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative has released the first of a series of white papers prepared jointly by representatives of electric utilities, cooperative and municipal power providers, merchant generators, environmental organizations, and state regulatory agencies and designed to help states make key decisions under the federal Clean Power Plan. Continue reading »
The range of benefits energy storage can provide to the electricity system are widely known among those in industry and well documented in the literature. Among these are storage’s abilities to help integrate wind and solar energy, improve grid reliability, and increase the economic efficiency of the electricity system. Despite the benefits, there has not yet been widespread deployment of energy storage. This is due to two main factors. First, there currently are not markets set up to allow storage owners to earn revenue for many of the services they provide. Second, storage technologies have historically been more expensive than alternative resources that can provide comparable services. However, both of these barriers have been easing recently. Continue reading »
In September of 2015, the Great Plains Institute invited 40 energy thought leaders and innovators to participate in a novel gathering to crowdsource their collective wisdom on the arc of the energy system over the next 5 to 20 years. To describe this gathering, we borrowed the term “Collaboratory,” which means “collaborative laboratory.” Think of it as an incubator for creativity and bold ideas among smart people who don’t often get together. Continue reading »
There is a growing, global momentum among businesses, communities, states, and nations toward an economically and environmentally sustainable energy system.
To achieve such a system will require harnessing the speed and innovation that only the market, bound by the right policy framework, can deliver. And that will require fresh thinking: enter, the Collaboratory. Continue reading »
Many states are considering mass-based allowance trading programs to meet the federal requirements under the Clean Power Plan (CPP). Under a mass-based trading approach, states work with a certain number of allowances, or an allowance “budget,” that matches the total emissions limit for each year of the program. States have many options for allocating the allowances that power plants will need to cover their carbon dioxide emissions. Continue reading »
This past year marked unprecedented global momentum toward a better energy future – momentum you can actually see and feel as we transition to an energy system that is economically and environmentally sustainable. Continue reading »
January 21, 2016 The Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative (formerly Midwestern Power Sector Collaborative) is a diverse stakeholder group formed in 2012 to engage EPA and states on the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the Midcontinent region. Participants include state officials, investor-owned utilities, generation and transmission cooperatives, merchant generators, public power producers and environmental organizations from the Midcontinent region or with a significant presence in the region. The Collaborative is facilitated and staffed by the Great Plains Institute. Continue reading »
Stakeholders, government officials, and policy experts from across the Midcontinent region and the nation gathered in Detroit, Michigan, on June 5, 2015, to discuss implementation options for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan. The one-day workshop was organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and the Great Plains Institute (GPI). The goal was to provide a forum for policy discussion within the region and to help inform two regional groups working on Clean Power Plan issues: the Midcontinent States Environmental and Energy Regulators (MSEER) and the Midwestern Power Sector Collaborative. Continue reading »
In mid-summer 2015, EPA is expected to issue its final Clean Power Plan regulations, which aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. The final rule will require states to develop and submit state plans as early as mid-summer 2016, to achieve the federally prescribed state emissions goals. Continue reading »
