E&E News reported a broad coalition of power generators, industry groups and think tanks is pushing FERC to look at impact and options for carbon pricing policies in competitive wholesale electricity markets, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.). RTO Insider also covered this story (sub. req.) quoting Jeff Dennis.

More than a dozen energy groups, including utilities NextEra Energy Inc. and LS Power, are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to host a conference to consider the agency's options for using carbon pricing in competitive wholesale electricity markets. Electric transmission lines are pictured. A broad coalition of power generators, industry groups and think tanks are pushing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to look at cost-effective, market-based ways to address climate change...

More than a dozen groups including Advanced Energy Economy, the American Council on Renewable Energy and the Natural Gas Supply Association, and utilities including NextEra Energy Inc. and LS Power, called on FERC yesterday to convene a technical conference to weigh policy options for using carbon pricing in competitive wholesale electricity markets. "The unique features of organized wholesale electricity markets create an opportunity for integrating policies that directly price carbon emissions into energy market operations," the groups wrote in their request.

A workshop, they said, could help wholesale electric energy and capacity markets, which FERC oversees, grappling with how to reconcile wholesale markets and state policies related to reducing carbon emissions. It could also examine a variety of mechanisms through which carbon could be priced on a state, regional or national level and how wholesale market pricing and dispatch could or already does account for the costs arising from compliance with such programs, they said...

Jeff Dennis, general counsel and managing director for Advanced Energy Economy, said that low- and zero-carbon energy technologies are the most cost-effective options for meeting consumers' energy needs. That in combination with states' ambitious commitments for 100% clean energy make carbon pricing a worthwhile consideration, he added.

"FERC convening a dialogue on carbon pricing would be a good first step toward a much needed conversation about how the entire suite of state policies can be better integrated into the competitive wholesale electricity markets," Dennis said in a statement...

Read the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.). RTO Insider also covered this story here (sub. req.).