EPA regional offices are holding private "listening sessions" to get utilities' input on three crucial provisions of the agency's pending climate rule for existing power plants - whether they prefer a rate-based or mass-based approach for limiting greenhouse gases (GHGs), the scale of the rule's compliance framework and the role of energy efficiency. The questions EPA is focusing on are some of the most contentious the agency faces as it develops a new source performance standard (NSPS) to curb existing utilities' carbon dioxide emissions. Industry sources say utilities' unified message to EPA is for it to defer key NSPS program decisions to states and allow them flexibility in their plans for implementing the rule - the same pitch made by states, and one to which the agency appears receptive.
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