The coal industry marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s controversial emission rules with a stark warning of economic harm, as the rules head to the White House for final review.
“Now that the rule is before the White House for final review, it is one step closer to inflicting significant economic harm on American families,” said Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for communications at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
Sheehan’s group, which represents the coal industry, has been an outspoken critic of the EPA emission rules, known as the Clean Power Plan. The coal industry argues that the rules would force coal plants to close in favor of more expensive alternatives that would drive up electricity prices.
The EPA emission rules were proposed on June 2, 2014. The agency sent the rules to the White House on Tuesday — the one-year anniversary of the proposal — where it will enter the final stage of pre-publication review by the Office of Management and Budget before becoming law.
The government’s regulation tracker website says the emission rules are slated to become final in August, giving the Office of Management and Budget about 60 days to finish its review of the regulations. That review likely will include meetings with the coal industry, environmentalists and other parties.
The industry also argues that with more power plants retiring because of EPA regulations, there is the potential for power outages and other threats to the reliable flow of electricity.
The rules, which seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, are at the center of President Obama’s plan to fight global warming. The emissions are considered by many scientists to be causing the Earth’s climate to warm.
Many environmental groups support the regulations as a benefit to public health, refuting claims that the rules would harm the grid or drive up prices. The groups argue that the reduction in greenhouse emissions would help stave off the worst effects of global warming, which they say is already creating more severe weather, droughts and flooding like what has been experienced recently in Texas.
But critics of the rules argue that the benefits of the Clean Power Plan do not outweigh the costs for consumers.
“On behalf of the millions of people who simply cannot afford to have their already limited budgets raided by the president to fund his climate crusade, we will continue to engage the public policy process until this rule is pulled down entirely,” Sheehan said.
At the same time, 14 states led by the coal-dependent state of West Virginia are opposing the rules in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments in the case were held April 16, and the court is slated to make a decision on the case by the end of the summer.
Federal court judges expressed skepticism during oral arguments about making a ruling before the Clean Power Plan is made final. As a matter of course, the D.C. Circuit court doesn’t make decisions on regulations that are not finished and implemented. But that could change if the White House finishes its review before the end of the summer, placing the judges in a position to make a decision that could roll back the regulations.
The states argue that EPA does not have the authority to implement the rules under the Clean Air Act, because it is targeting states, not the power plants themselves.
At the same time, both the House and Senate have introduced legislation to delay the rules, giving states the ability to opt out if they feel compliance with the rules would cause power outages or increase the price of electricity.
