Republican lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about the “onslaught of regulations” coming from the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly those that could make the nation’s power grid less reliable.
Reliability issues have become a growing concern for the GOP in its oversight of the EPA’s rules that could shutter hundreds of power plants. There is also a time crunch, given that the rules for implementing the administration’s Clean Power Plan are set to be finalized this summer.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who is chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has committee staff looking at issues for the next round of oversight hearings on the power plant rules, with the possibility of examining costs and legal hurdles posed by the regulations.
But the chairman also is interested in the effects of the rules on electricity markets and how the Clean Power Plan will affect grid reliability, said a committee aide. The electricity concerns fall under the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, headed by Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. The two committees are talking about how to handle those issues, the aide said.
The energy committee spokesman said the reliability concerns likely would be examined after the panel finishes work addressing energy infrastructure and efficiency. Because the rules have stoked controversy, he said the energy committee will focus first on areas where it has adequate consensus for moving legislation.
He noted that Murkowski released a white paper late last year underscoring the importance of addressing reliability and persuaded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold technical conferences to examine the risks posed by the Clean Power Plan. FERC will hold the last one March 31.
In the environment committee, Inhofe held a hearing earlier this month on issues the states have regarding the power plant rules.
The Environment and Public Works aide said Inhofe also wants to examine the legal questions surrounding EPA’s implementation of the rules that lawyers and constitutional scholars call a “power grab” by extending its enforcement powers over the states and overstepping its authority under the Clean Air Act.
The legal issues dovetail with concerns over the significant costs that states face complying with the regulations. The regulations are meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that many scientists say are the key reason the Earth’s climate is warming.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy and power held a hearing on the legal complications EPA faces in implementing the rules, along with the cost issues. The Senate environment committee is looking to hold similar hearings in the future.
Underscoring the growing interest in going after EPA and the administration’s climate agenda, Sen. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., will head a special field hearing on Monday to provide an overview of the Clean Power Plan’s impact on her state’s coal industry. The hearing will be held in Beckley, W.Va.
The field hearing will “examine the impact of EPA carbon regulations in the nation’s second-largest coal-producing state,” according to a statement from Capito’s office.
