Massachusetts DOER schedules August 26 public hearing on CPS emergency rulemaking
This is the sixth blog in our “2024 Clean Peak Standard” blog series. Read the first five blogs here.
Last week, DOER announced that it will be holding a public hearing on August 26, 2024 to receive comments on its recent emergency Clean Peak Energy Standard (CPS) regulations, which we discussed in our previous post. A quick recap – the emergency regulations:
- Adjust the Minimum Standard for CPS compliance from 2025 through 2050 (lower at first, then accelerating and eventually exceeding the original Minimum Standard by the end of the decade)
- Remove the minimum obligation ratchet mechanism
- Introduce a 2x multiplier for 50 MW of resources connect to the distribution system by the end of 2026 and that are either (1) Qualified Energy Storage Systems that are not co-located with a Qualified RPS Resource or (2) Demand Response Resources but are interconnected to the distribution system.
While emergency regulations can go into effect immediately and stay in effect for up to three months, if an agency intends for them to become permanent at the end of that three-month period, the agency is required to hold a public hearing. (Yes, we read the Commonwealth’s regulations manual. No, this has not helped make friends at parties).
What meaning can we derive from this? First – the public hearing doesn’t suggest anything about DOER’s intent to make any changes to the emergency regulations filed, as the public hearing is required. Issuing emergency regulations requires jumping through extra hoops, particularly establishing that the changes justify the emergency rulemaking process. Given this, and the rationale DOER has provided for the emergency regulations, our take is that the emergency regulations will likely go into effect as filed.
Still, DOER previously indicated that the emergency regulations will not supplant the 2024 Program Review (required by the CPS regulations). DOER already accepted a round of comments in response to a set of questions it issued; while there may be additional opportunities for input (e.g. in a comment period following issuance of draft regulations), DOER has not specified any. It’s possible that stakeholders may try to use the emergency regulations hearing as an opportunity to comment on CPS more generally.
The hearing is scheduled for August 26 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm and will be held virtually (register here). According to DOER’s announcement, stakeholder may also submit written comments through August 26 at 5:00 pm; DOER requests that PDFs be emailed to [email protected] with “2024 CPS EMERGENCY RULEMAKING COMMENTS” in the subject line.
As always, the CPMO team will continue to follow every twist and turn in the market and incorporate it all into the policy insights and market projections our subscribers count on. To learn more about the service, please reach out to the Clean Peak Market Outlook team.
