FERC Staff Proposes Process On Advising EPA On Extension Requests

On January 30, 2012, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) Staff issued a white paper outlining a proposal to guide the Commission in advising the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on requests for administrative orders (AOs) extending the time for power plants to comply with EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) based on system reliability concerns.¹ EPA stated in a Final Rule that, in considering such requests, it will seek advice from FERC as well as certain other entities with reliability expertise.² FERC Staff recommends that requests for AOs be filed with the FERC Secretary's office on an informational basis and assigned to the Office of Electric Reliability (OER). OER would consider whether discontinuing operations of the generating unit in question would result in a Reliability Standard violation. The Commission in turn would advise EPA regarding such Reliability Standard violations in written comments. FERC has requested comments