Statement from EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler
For Immediate Release: January 15, 2020
Contact: Christina Nyquist | cnyquist@epsa.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s announcement that he will pursue market-based, least-cost approaches to achieve climate goals sets a strong example for other states and national policymakers, said the head of the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), which represents America’s competitive power suppliers. Todd Snitchler, EPSA’s president and CEO, released the following statement in response to Gov. Baker’s veto of S. 2995 and accompanying letter to the Commonwealth’s legislators.
“We applaud Governor Baker for his leadership and are eager to work with him and other state and national policymakers and partners on a path forward. Governor Baker’s decision to choose competition puts the Commonwealth on track to build a cleaner power grid that is reliable, affordable, and continues to shift investment risk away from consumers – setting an example for other states and our national leaders as they look for meaningful and affordable solutions to reduce carbon emissions. Governor Baker’s support for regional approaches rather than state-by-state planning is the right approach to achieve maximum emissions reductions at least cost.
By focusing on efficient emissions reductions through an economy-wide price on carbon or similar market-based tools, we can provide cleaner electricity while allowing competing companies to bring the best, least-cost solutions to the grid. This approach creates a runway for innovation, shields customers from investment risks, and will be much more successful than locking in decades-long contracts for electric resources.
Competitive, technology-neutral approaches that harness regional power markets to reduce emissions can achieve widespread, significant emissions reductions at a fraction of the cost of other policy options, according to research from Energy + Environmental Economics (E3). In addition to findings for the PJM Interconnection region, E3’s recent study of New England’s power grid shows that cost-effectively and reliably meeting decarbonization goals will require firm generation capacity from natural gas plants and other resources to complement renewable growth.
EPSA supports efforts to pursue decarbonization that allow all resources to compete to reduce emissions at the least cost, while planning for reliability and ensuring a sustainable energy transition. Regional competitive power markets have saved customers billions, while carbon emissions from power generation have dropped significantly and new, efficient, low-carbon and renewable technology has grown.”
###
The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) is the national trade association representing America’s competitive power suppliers. EPSA members provide nearly 150,000 MW of reliable and competitively priced electricity from environmentally responsible facilities using a diverse mix of fuels and technologies including natural gas, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, storage, biomass, and coal. EPSA seeks to bring the benefits of competition to all power customers. Learn more at www.epsa.org and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @EPSAnews.
