The Trump administration officially rolled out its replacement for the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature initiative to combat climate change, with claims that the revision would save money while also slightly reducing carbon dioxide pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday morning released its plan, renamed the “Affordable Clean Energy Rule,” that the agency said would provide $400 million in annual benefits, while reducing carbon emission levels by up to 1.5 percent by 2030. President Trump is expected to tout the new rule at a rally in coal-friendly West Virginia Tuesday night.
“The ACE Rule would restore the rule of law and empower states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide modern, reliable, and affordable energy for all Americans,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Today’s proposal provides the states and regulated community the certainty they need to continue environmental progress while fulfilling President Trump’s goal of energy dominance.”
The much more ambitious 2015 Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented because of a Supreme Court stay, required states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, by shifting away from coal plants to natural gas and renewable energy.
It was the pledge that underpinned the U.S.’ commitment to the Paris climate change agreement before Trump rejected the deal. The Trump administration argues that Obama based the Clean Power Plan on an overbroad interpretation of the Clean Air Act, and its new rule fits more squarely into what the law allows for.
The Trump EPA replacement plan gives more power to states to regulate their coal plants.
The rewritten rule will achieve more modest carbon reduction impacts because it regulates power plants individually, instead of pushing for broad changes to the U.S. electricity mix, which is already naturally shifting away from coal to cheaper and cleaner alternatives.
The EPA would mandate heat rate improvements in power plants, enabling them to run more efficiently by burning less coal to produce the same amount of electricity.
And it would ease regulations that force power plants to undergo new pollution reviews when they upgrade facilities.
States would have three years to submit a compliance plan to improve efficiency at coal plants. EPA would have one year to approve or deny state plans. If it deems a state plan insufficient, the EPA said it would impose a federal plan on a state within two years.
The EPA also acknowledged the weaker rule would lead to a potential rise in soot and other particulate matter that contribute to health issues such as asthma and lung disease, although the agency has other means to regulate those.
It projects the revised rule could lead to between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths each year by 2030 compared to the Obama plan.
In choosing to replace the Clean Power Plan, rather than repeal it outright, the EPA is acknowledging the federal government is legally obligated to regulate emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
It decided not to contest the endangerment finding, as some conservatives pushed the agency to do. That finding is a 2009 EPA policy that created the basis for regulating carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. It stems from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said carbon dioxide is a pollutant endangering public health that the EPA should regulate under the Clean Air Act.
Environmentalists and Democratic states quickly vowed to sue over the proposal, arguing the Trump plan does not do enough to cover the legal obligation to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
Critics say the proposal would not significantly cut carbon emissions because it would help keep alive coal plants that would otherwise retire. Even coal supporters, however, admit the more limited regulation won’t entice new coal development, although it may delay some retirements.
Since 2010, nearly 40 percent of the capacity of the nation’s coal-fired power plants has been shut down or designated for closure, according to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a trade group supporting the industry.
The Trump EPA proposal still faces a 60-day public comment period before being finalized.
This story has been updated since publication.
