NARUC issues report on helping states navigate decarbonization goals
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) released a report this week designed to help state policymakers and regulators navigate decarbonization goals.
The report, called Potential State Regulatory Pathways to Facilitate Low-Carbon Fuels, provides informational context for state utility regulators to understand the impacts and challenges of integrating low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen and renewable natural gas. It includes examples of state regulatory actions — like voluntary customer tariffs, supplier tariffs, procurement targets, and investigatory proceedings — that have already been taken to facilitate the development of low-carbon fuels.
“State regulators must make decisions in the public interest, weighing costs and risks to customers through the lens of reliability and resilience, emissions reduction, and affordability,” Commissioner Diane Burman of the New York State Public Service Commission said. “This report is extremely timely, considering the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which envisions allocating substantial resources to help incentivize the development of various decarbonization technologies such as low-carbon fuels.
The report was developed by NARUC’s Center for Partnerships and Innovation with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Increasingly, policymakers are considering the role of hydrogen and RNG in helping to achieve state and national decarbonization goals. They can be explored as tools to decarbonize sectors that are difficult to electrify or transition away from natural gas entirely, such as air, rail, and maritime transportation; long-distance trucking; industrial processes; and space and water heating in cold climates.
“State public utility commissions are at the forefront of our energy future, and many states are on the cusp of making critical decisions that will impact the growth of hydrogen and RNG in decades to come,” CPI Senior Director Danielle Sass Byrnett said. “Providing timely resources from a regulator’s perspective to support state decisionmakers is a critical part of NARUC’s mission to serve the public interest by improving the quality and effectiveness of public utility regulation.”
