Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Monday that her agency can’t withhold federal highway funding if states don’t comply with proposed carbon emission limits for existing power plants.
The comments were a shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s non-binding budget resolution, which passed 57-43. The Kentucky Republican’s resolution said the EPA can’t block highway funds if a state doesn’t submit an implementation plan for the power plant rule, which is due for finalization in mid-summer.
“We actually don’t have the legal authority,” McCarthy said at a Washington event hosted by Politico, adding that McConnell was likely “confused” by punitive action the EPA can take under the Clean Air Act if a state doesn’t comply with National Ambient Air Quality Standards for pollutants such as ozone.
But environmental and legal experts have bandied about the idea that the EPA could restrict highway funds if states don’t comply with the rule, which calls for slashing electricity emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The rule is the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda, as his administration has said it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide that scientists say drive climate change. Detractors contend it would raise energy prices and do little to affect global emissions.
Part of McConnell’s strategy for defanging the proposed regulation involves persuading states to not submit a plan to comply. While McCarthy’s clarification took one stick off the table for states that go that route, it still has another — the agency can impose a federal plan for states that don’t file their own strategy.
“This is a standard compliance system, where we set the standards, the states implement and then the sources are responsible to achieve the emission reduction targets that are in there,” McCarthy said.
The section of the Clean Air Act the EPA is using to issue the power plant rule has little associated case law. Industry and GOP opponents of the rule say the EPA has questionable legal authority to call on emission reductions outside individual power plants.
McCarthy, however, has asserted the EPA plan is legally solid. The proposal offers four major categories for states to cut emissions: improving power plant efficiency; adding renewable energy; converting power plants to run on natural gas instead of coal; and boosting customer energy efficiency.
