Much to the chagrin of opponents of the Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency has continued work on the related Clean Energy Incentive Program regardless of a Supreme Court stay of the CPP, releasing a proposal for certain design details for the program Thursday. “Once finalized, the design elements in this proposal will help guide states and tribes that choose to participate in the CEIP when the Clean Power Plan (CPP) becomes effective,” an EPA fact sheet explains.
The release of the design details is controversial, as the program is related to the CPP, which the EPA is legally barred from enforcing until the rule has been deemed lawful. The agency has held that because developing CEIP does not force implementation of the CPP it is in no way violating the stay while it faces a federal lawsuit against the rule.
EPA will hold a public hearing on the proposed details in Chicago on Aug. 3. Public comment can also be submitted at regulation.gov for 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
Opponents of the rule disagree with EPA’s latest move, of course, and were quick to make it known. “The agency has no respect for the rule of law or decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States and would rather progress a political priority at the expense of American taxpayers. The highest court in the land has already ruled that EPA’s activities are on legally vulnerable ground and states heeding the court’s direction should not fear penalty,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Thursday in a prepared statement, suggesting that states that do not want to continue work related to the CPP should not feel pressured to comment on the CEIP.
The Clean Power Plan requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals. Some states have elected to continue working on their plans during the stay while other have put their pencils down.
The CEIP is a voluntary program in which states would receive emissions rate credits or allowances to promote early investments in wind, solar, and demand-side energy efficiency for low-income communities in 2020 and 2021. These would run parallel to the CPP’s mandate for states to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, with the aim of producing carbon-free megawatt hours or lower end-use energy demand.
The newly proposed details include criteria for eligible low‐income community projects such as demand-side energy efficiency and solar projects implemented to serve low‐income communities and zero‐emitting renewable energy projects such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower in all communities. Also detailed is an approach for states and tribes to use definitions of the term “low‐income community” under current programs aimed at benefitting those communities, and how the EPA matching pool of allowances and emission rate credits will be made available to states and tribes that participate in the CEIP.
