Those interested in voicing their opinions about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Energy Incentive Program will have 60 more days to do so, the agency announced Thursday. The comment period on the program, which rewards early action under the Clean Power Plan, was initially set to end Sept. 2. Comments will now be accepted until Nov. 1.
According to an EPA announcement, “A number of tribes working on comments for the Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP) Design Details proposed rule … have asked for additional consultation to better understand the issues related to the interaction between state plans and projects on tribal land that may qualify for the CEIP.”
The Clean Power Plan requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals.
Under the voluntary program, states can issue “early action allowances” or “early action emission rate credits,” which the EPA then matches. “States in turn provide these awarded matching compliance instruments to the providers of eligible CEIP [renewable energy] and low-income community projects that received the early action allowances or early action ERCs from the state,” the proposal explains.
Currently, 24 comments have been filed for the CEIP on reguatlions.gov. The EPA also held a public hearing on the proposal on Aug. 3 in Chicago.
The release of the design details in June was controversial, given the program’s relationship to the Clean Power Plan, which the EPA is legally barred from enforcing under a Supreme Court order until the rule is deemed lawful. The agency has held that because developing CEIP does not force implementation of the Clean Power Plan it is in no way violating the stay while it battles a federal lawsuit against the rule.