More than two-thirds of utility executives believe the Environmental Protection Agency should strengthen the Clean Power Plan or hold to its original targets, according to a new survey.
Utility Dive released its sixth annual State of the Electric Utility Survey Tuesday, a survey of 515 electric utility executives during the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. The survey was finished before the Supreme Court issued an order last week staying the Clean Power Plan until after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals makes a ruling on it later on this year.
According to the survey, 41 percent of respondents said the EPA should hold to its current emissions standards and timetables for the Clean Power Plan. Twenty-nine percent of the executives said the EPA should make the emissions targets even more aggressive in the coming years.
Of the executives surveyed, 17 percent want the Clean Power Plan to stay in place but have its goals ratcheted down, and 13 percent want the EPA to completely scrap the rules.
The regulation on new and existing coal power plants would reduce the country’s carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030.
Its critics have frequently said that the regulation would place undue burden on power utilities in the United States and it would drive up costs to consumers. Many industry groups are involved in the lawsuit to stop the regulation that resulted in the Supreme Court issuing a stay.
Twenty-nine states have sued to stop the rule. Some of those, including Wisconsin and Michigan, have halted work on their plans to comply with the regulation while the stay is in place.
