Florida Municipal Power Agency Voices Concerns About EPA Proposed Greenhouse Gas Rule

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 4, 2023

The Florida Municipal Power Agency recently filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency voicing concerns about EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule for electric utilities.

The rule, which targets CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, presents unique challenges in Florida, FMPA noted.

FMPA is a wholesale power agency owned by municipal electric utilities in Florida.

Florida relies on natural gas generation for 75% of its power supply, “by far the highest percentage in the United States. It would be one of the most impacted states by EPA’s proposed rule, which would introduce experimental ‘green’ hydrogen to partially fuel natural gas power plants by 2032,” FMPA said in a news release related to the comments.

The Florida Reliability Coordinating Council also filed comments on the proposed rule. The FRCC reported the rule would likely reduce natural gas generation levels between 20% to 40% for natural gas units, creating significant reliability risks in Florida, FMPA pointed out.

“Florida is not situated to comply with the rule within the proposed time frame and it would result in 8% unserved energy, or the equivalent of blacking out all of Florida’s residential customers for two months, according to FRCC analysis,” said Jacob Williams, CEO and general manager at FMPA. “To meet the proposal, permitting and building out the ‘green’ hydrogen production, transportation and storage facilities for most of the natural gas plants in Florida would take much longer than eight years and will be extremely costly.”

FMPA estimates EPA’s proposals could increase energy costs between 100% to 200% for all Florida customers. “This, combined with Florida families using more electricity than the average U.S. family due to heat and humidity and already rapidly increasing energy prices, creates challenges for customers,” FMPA pointed out in the news release.

Florida has one of the highest rates of residents living on a fixed or low income, especially with the state’s significant retiree population. Of FMPA’s members, which include all 33 public power utilities in the state, nearly half of the communities have average incomes that are 50% or less of the U.S. average.

“Our top priority remains providing affordable and reliable power to each of the 4 million Floridians served by our members,” said Williams.

In its comments, FMPA encouraged EPA to delay the rulemaking and consult with other federal agencies about the unique economic and power reliability consequences of its proposed rules.

The rule was published in the Federal Register on May 23, 2023.