Daily on Energy: Coal country rips power plan

Coal country sounds off: West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, thanking miners who sat in the crowd in the heart of coal country, kicked off the first of two days of hearings by criticizing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan as “disastrous and unlawful.”

West Virginia led a coalition of 27 Republican attorneys general who sued Obama’s EPA over the power plan, which led to the Supreme Court staying the rule while the case works its way through the courts.

“The Clean Power Plan is one of most far reaching regulations in EPA history,” Morrisey said. “It would impose a top-down reordering of state energy economies. The power plan is unlawful and would be disastrous for West Virginia and the country as a whole.”

Seeking forever repeal: Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, America’s largest privately owned coal company, followed Morrisey by urging the Trump administration to repeal the power plan “in its entirety.”

“The illegal Clean Power Plan, better known as the no power plan, is a linchpin of Mr. Obama and Democrats’ War on Coal,” Murray said at the hearing Tuesday morning. “The Clean Power Plan would devastate coal-fired electricity generation in America and U.S. coal industry. It would impose massive costs on the power sector and American consumers.”

Pressure on Trump: Murray, whose company is based in West Virginia, ended his testimony by saying, “I love you coal miners,” to his 30 or so employees in the audience, and credited President Trump with saving 25,000 coal mining jobs. His emotional appeal shows the pressure the Trump administration faces from the farthest corners of his base to repeal the Clean Power Plan, without issuing a replacement.

EPA’s dilemma: But even the fiercest critics of the plan say EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt may have no choice but to issue a more modest version of the Clean Power Plan because his agency is bound to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas under a 2009 rule known as the endangerment finding.

Many energy industry representatives recognize that companies and states are moving away from coal even without the Clean Power Plan, opting for cheaper natural gas or renewable power because it makes economic sense to do so.

Industry supports replacement: Scott Segal, director of Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents major power utilities such as Southern, Duke and Ameren, testified that he supports a more limited regulation that would focus requiring efficiency improvements inside power plants, an approach known as “inside the fenceline.”

“While ERCC believes that absent specific guidance in legislation from the U.S. Congress, market principles are the most sound basis upon which to proceed, we nevertheless support the process advanced by EPA,” Segal said. “Federal guidance of sufficient flexibility, and limited to actions within the fenceline, can provide regulatory certainty, diminish frivolous litigation, and can aide in planning.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, will argue for “durable and achievable standards,” according to prepared remarks.

What’s next: The EPA proposed to repeal the Obama-era Clean Power Plan on Oct. 10, and the agency is expected to soon issue a notice seeking comment on how to proceed. EPA will accept comments on its proposed repeal through Jan. 16.

‘Shutting out’ debate: “EPA is shutting out the voices of citizens, business owners and other critical stakeholders who have legitimate concerns about repealing the Clean Power Plan,” David J. Hayes, executive director of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law, which is representing the state attorneys general, said Tuesday morning.

“It behooves EPA to hold more than a single hearing in friendly territory – while ignoring states with booming clean industries and jobs to be part of the public hearing process — before taking such potentially drastic action.”

Hearings wanted: The following state attorneys general — all Democrats — have sent letters to Pruitt seeking hearings in their states: Maryland’s Brian Frosh; Maura Healey of Massachusetts; Oregon‘s Ellen Rosenblum; Virginia’s Mark Herring; Janet Mills of Maine; and New York’s Eric Schneiderman.

Lawsuit threat: The attorneys general, led by Schneiderman, have vowed to sue if the Trump administration proceeds with repealing the Clean Power Plan.

“If and when the Trump administration finalizes this repeal, I will sue to protect New Yorkers and put a stop to the Trump administration’s irresponsible and illegal efforts to turn back the clock on public health,” Schneiderman said last month.

OPEC meeting stakes: OPEC and other producers are set to meet Thursday to discuss whether to extend the cuts beyond their expiration in March, in an effort to limit global supply to increase prices.

Uncertainty persists: The Goldman analysts warn in their note that Russia may be hesitant to extend the deal with oil prices poised to top $60 a barrel, a level not seen since June 2015.

“We believe that the outcome of this meeting is much more uncertain than usual,” the Goldman analysts said.

‘Return to normal’: “TransCanada will operate the pipeline at a reduced pressure starting on Tuesday to ensure a safe and gradual increase in the volume of crude oil moving through the system,” TransCanada said.

TransCanada said the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration approved the energy company’s repair and restart plans with no objections.

The 2,147-mile pipeline carries oil from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Keystone XL decision awaits: Nebraska regulators on Nov. 20 approved a key permit for the Keystone XL expansion of the pipeline network, but it rejected TransCanada’s preferred route, approving an alternative that would move the pipeline further east. TransCanada is expected to decide next month whether to proceed with the project.

TransCanada has questions: TransCanada on Monday filed a motion with the Nebraska Public Service Commission asking the regulators to address questions related to their ruling.

Terry Cunha, a TransCanada spokesman, told the Washington Examiner the company is “not asking for the route to be reconsidered.”

Pitch falls flat in Bonn: The Trump administration used the recent United Nations’ international climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, to promote the “clean” use of coal, irking other nations that planned to build off the Paris international climate change agreement intended to facilitate a switch to other forms of lower-emissions energy sources.

Key for emissions cuts: But technologies such as carbon capture and storage, known as CCS, will be key to fulfilling the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects of climate change.

“We are going to need this technology to effectively address domestic and global emissions,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House adviser who has studied carbon capture and storage for 20 years. “The problem is no administration has been truly serious about this. Trump’s emphasis on coal production and employment is going nowhere unless CCS commercializes.”

What CCS does: CCS technology removes carbon dioxide from a power plant’s exhaust, so as to not release it into the atmosphere. The carbon can be cooled and injected as a liquid underground. Some technologies can use the captured carbon for other energy uses.

The UN’s scientific body determined in 2014 that if CCS isn’t widely deployed, keeping global temperatures below the 2-degree Celsius threshold over the next century would be 138 percent more expensive.