GAO report finds utility compliance with EPA rules’ challenging, but doable
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17 Aug 2012
A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday said the implementation of four environmental rules will likely pose electric “reliability challenges,” though not the full-blown problems Republicans and the utility industry and some state regulators have claimed.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), who requested the report, said it was a win for the rules’ proponents. “We must address the health and environmental concerns related to the power sector, and this report shows that we can do it responsibly,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The report added that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has not been proactive enough in reviewing electricity market rules to determine if they should be changed to ensure a reliable power supply in the wake of new Environmental Protection Agency standards targeting generators’ emissions, their management of cooling water, and their disposal of coal ash.
