The company said it wants to avoid imposing high costs on utility customers, and alleged that the CPP's directives could weaken the electrical-grid's reliability.
"The Ameren plan would save our customers billions of dollars while helping avoid substantial economic costs and consequences related to the potential degradation of electric reliability, long a bedrock component of America's economic prosperity and widely admired standard of living," Warner Baxter, Ameren's chairman, president and CEO, said.
Ameren’s approach proposes changes to the CPP that would include removing the plan's interim targets on reductions in CO2 emissions that begin in 2020, enhancing interim reporting requirements by each state, allowing full credit for the retirement of coal-fired power plants and allowing for an extension of the 2030 deadline if utilities are making substantive progress toward achieving the EPA's final greenhouse gas goals.
Ameren said its approach also would reach the EPA’s final CO2 emissions-reduction goals while saving $4 billion in costs and eliminating grid-reliability issues related to the closure of coal-fired power plants.
"Ameren has developed a clear path to significantly cut greenhouse-gas emissions without inflicting needless pain upon our customers," Baxter said. " Our approach provides important environmental and climate benefits while saving customers billions of dollars and preserving the reliable service U.S. citizens have enjoyed for decades. We hope our proposal sparks a constructive conversation among all involved in this important issue."
Ameren is a public utility company.
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