Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan announced Tuesday that he would comply with the Obama administration’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, as critics of the plan bashed the state for giving up the fight.
Snyder made the decision to go forward with the administration’s Clean Power Plan in a statement that said the best option for the state to survive the rule was to comply with it.
“The best way to protect Michigan is to develop a state plan that reflects Michigan’s priorities of adaptability, affordability, reliability and protection of the environment,” Snyder said. “We need to seize the opportunity to make Michigan’s energy decisions in Lansing, not leave them in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”
The Clean Power Plan, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency Aug. 3, requires that states begin submitting plans by next summer to demonstrate how they plan to comply with state-specific emission reduction targets prescribed by the federal government.
The plan’s goal is to reduce states’ emissions by one-third by 2030 through a mix of renewable energy, natural gas-fired power plants, increased efficiency for coal plants and a range of other variables that can include states working together under a regional accord.
The Republican governor made the decision as senior GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have been fighting the rule. Upton helped move a bill out of his committee that would delay the EPA plan until litigation has worked its way through the courts. The bill also would give states’ governors the ability to opt out of the EPA program if they find complying with the rule would harm consumers or the electric grid.
Fifteen states, led by West Virginia, are preparing to sue the EPA after it submits the Clean Power Plan for publication in the Federal Register. The Justice Department told a federal appeals court Monday that it will be months before the EPA will submit the plan for publication. Michigan was one of the latest to join the states in its suit, highlighting that Snyder may be attempting to hedge his bets.
Critics of the rule are lashing out against the governor’s “decision to wave the white flag and implement EPA’s carbon regulation,” which is “bad news for Michigan families,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the conservative American Energy Alliance.
“Implementing this regulation, when serious legal challenges persist, effectively hands over the keys to Michigan’s energy future to unelected bureaucrats in Washington,” Pyle said. “Once Gov. Snyder signs away Michigan’s control over its energy future to Obama’s EPA, there is no turning back.”
Pyle said Snyder has fallen for pressure tactics used by the administration to make states “think their only choices are to submit a state plan or have a federal plan imposed on them.” Pyle concludes that Snyder “has apparently fallen for this false choice.”
“The real choice is between shielding Michigan from this harmful carbon regulation or helping President Obama carry it across the finish line as the sun sets on his presidency,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has urged all states not to comply with the EPA climate rule. He argues that the plan will raise rates for consumers while doing little to reduce the emissions the president wants lowered to fight global warming.
Many scientists say that greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are causing the Earth’s climate to warm, leading to more severe weather and sea levels to rise.
McConnell says the real goal of the president’s plan is to demonstrate to countries later this year in Paris that the U.S. is reducing its emissions to reach a deal with the United Nations on fighting climate change. He says the EPA plan pays little attention to the effect it would have on the American taxpayer or the electric grid.
