Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/3/2015
The ongoing debate over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission reduction standards for existing coal-fired power plants is not as heated outside of Washington, Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy said during an event hosted by Politico this week. The proposed regulations, which have been met with resistance from Congressional Republicans, would set state-specific emissions reduction goals and require states to develop action plans to meet those goals. “I hate to tell you, but it’s not as hot outside of Washington, D.C. as it is in Washington D.C. so I think we’ve got to look at what the issues are that people care about across the United States,” McCarthy said. Lawmakers in several states, though, including Kentucky, West Virginia, Minnesota and Montana, have introduced measures that would place limits on state plans or give their state governments final say on the submission of a state plan.
McCarthy said the majority of Americans support combating climate change and understand that to do so carbon emissions must be cut. “Clearly, the majority of people in the U.S. recognize that we have to take action on climate and they’re looking for U.S. leadership on this, including the business community. And so I think we know we all have to move towards a low- carbon future,” she said. “There’s also folks in Kentucky that are working really hard with us at figuring out what kind of action we need to take. So I think there is a lot more surety now among the general public,” she said.
McCarthy’s comments were met with criticism, though, from groups that oppose the EPA’s proposed regulations and that have claimed the proposal would increase electric bills and result in a loss of coal jobs. “Frankly, Administrator McCarthy’s refusal to accept reality isn’t the least bit surprising considering EPA has yet to make a true, concerted effort to travel to coal-dependent communities and hear from Americans who will pay the biggest price for her agency’s disastrous carbon proposal,” Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for communications at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said in a release following the event. “While EPA chooses to stay inside its ivory tower and ignore concerns from outside of Washington, American households and the economy continue to be placed in a perilous state.”
EPA Remains Secure on Legal Ground
The proposed regulations are currently the subject of several legal challenges, many arguing that the EPA does not have the authority to regulate carbon emissions from coal fired power plants under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act because those plants are already regulated under a different section. These legal challenges have warranted little concern in the EPA at this point as the rule has yet to be finalized, McCarthy said. “There’s some legal challenges now which we feel are not particularly of significance because we haven’t finalized the rule. But when we finalize it we expect it will be legally challenged and it could likely go to the Supreme Court,” McCarthy said. “That’s why we’re going to make sure we do it the way we’re supposed to do and follow the law and see what the data says and do it the way that it will be legally solid and we’re looking forward to that. And I don’t think there will be opportunities for folks to have a significant challenge because we’ve been doing the Clean Air Act for a really long time.”
