We Can Protect Our Climate and Keep The Lights on Too!

The authors contend that the Clean Power Plan's design and current industry trends allow for significant power sector emission cuts while maintaining reliability. They highlight that existing natural gas and transmission infrastructure, combined with the flexibility of the rule, are sufficient to manage the transition. To further mitigate potential reliability risks, the document advocates for the EPA to establish a mechanism for interstate allowance trading between states in different regions, which would allow states facing local constraints to purchase allowances from those with surplus capacity.

• The U.S. can significantly reduce power sector greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining system reliability by utilizing existing natural gas and electric transmission infrastructure and continuing current infrastructure improvements.
• A Department of Energy study indicated that additional infrastructure needs will be modest even with significant coal plant retirements, due to the broad distribution of natural gas supply and demand and the ability to increase the use of existing natural gas infrastructure.
• The Brattle Group's assessment of a NERC study concluded that compliance with the Clean Power Plan is unlikely to materially affect reliability because of the power sector's ongoing transformation, existing operator steps, available technological tools, and the flexibility of the CPP.
• Interstate allowance trading between states in different regions can serve as a tool to overcome local electric or natural gas constraints and mitigate reliability concerns, such as insufficient natural gas redispatch or disruptions from variable energy resources.

APA

Schneider, C., & Duffy, J. (2015). We Can Protect Our Climate and Keep The Lights on Too! Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2015/02/we-can-protect-our-climate-and-keep-the-lights-on-too/

Chicago

Schneider, Conrad, and Jay Duffy. We Can Protect Our Climate and Keep The Lights on Too! Clean Air Task Force, 2015. https://www.catf.us/2015/02/we-can-protect-our-climate-and-keep-the-lights-on-too/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Schneider |first1=Conrad |last2=Duffy |first2=Jay |title=We Can Protect Our Climate and Keep The Lights on Too! |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=12 February 2015 |url=https://www.catf.us/2015/02/we-can-protect-our-climate-and-keep-the-lights-on-too/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{schneider2015can, author = {Schneider, Conrad and Duffy, Jay}, title = {{We Can Protect Our Climate and Keep The Lights on Too!}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2015}, month = feb, url = {https://www.catf.us/2015/02/we-can-protect-our-climate-and-keep-the-lights-on-too/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }