A new government report raising concerns over the Obama administration’s emission rules for power plants is stoking Republican resolve to pass legislation to roll back the aggressive regulations, which are at the center of the president’s climate change agenda.
The Energy Information Administration on Friday issued its first analysis on the effects of the Environmental Protection Agency’s emission rules for existing power plants, called the Clean Power Plan. The new analysis says more than 90 gigawatts of coal plant retirements would occur between this year and 2040, with most occurring before 2020, under the EPA’s proposed emission rules. Without the emissions limits, 40 gigawatts would come offline, said the Energy Department’s independent statistics arm.
“This new analysis from the administration’s own energy statistician calls needed attention to the threats posed by the president’s misguided ‘Clean Power Plan,'” said Sen. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., who introduced legislation this month to roll back the EPA’s plan by giving states the ability to opt out of compliance. Under the legislation, a state would not have to comply if the governor shows that abiding by the emission limits would raise energy costs or threaten the reliable flow of electricity.
The EPA rules set state-specific reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions, which most scientists say are the cause of man-made global warming, resulting in more severe weather, droughts and floods.
Capito’s state is leading a group of more than a dozen states suing the EPA in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the rules overstep the agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act.
Capito, who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, introduced her bill, the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act, or ARENA, on May 13. The bill also would allow states to defer compliance until all judicial review and lawsuits have been settled in the courts.
The ARENA legislation has the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state is a party to the West Virginia lawsuit.
Both McConnell and Capito are from coal-producing states, which they argue will be significantly affected by the Clean Power Plan.
“According to the [Energy Information Administration] analysis, the president’s efforts to regulate carbon emissions threaten to drastically reduce coal production, increase energy prices and reduce reliability,” Capito said.
“The need for legislative action is clear, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to advance an alternative approach that puts affordable energy, our jobs and the economy first,” she said.
Meanwhile, Democrats downplayed Republican concerns, saying the study can be used to support or refute the Clean Power Plan.
“Critics of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan will try to cherry pick this analysis to support their opposition,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., after the study’s release.
“But these are the same individuals that deny the science of climate change and ally themselves with fossil fuel interests who benefit the most from blocking action,” Markey said.
He said the GOP attempted to use an EIA study on climate change legislation he sponsored six years ago when he was in the House. Markey said “they did very same with the EIA analysis of Waxman-Markey legislation, which found the legislation would cost American households less than a quarter a day.”
