Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
8/1/2014
Interagency collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in the drafting of the EPA’s carbon plan was no more than a “box-checking exercise,” Charles McConnell, former Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy testified before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology this week. “A true collaborative effort would have been considerably different than what I observed. I observed what was a box-checking effort to say that it occurred but in fact was de minimis,” McConnell said. “We were able to make inputs and never able to actually observe whether they were received and entered. It was simply a communication and then at that point the EPA was fundamentally in charge with whatever they wanted to report.” The proposed EPA regulation in question sets CO2 emission reduction targets for each state and requires the states to develop implementation plans to reach these targets.
Committee members questioned McConnell over how much collaboration there was between DOE and the EPA in developing the new plan. Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) suggested that DOE should have had a hand in developing the modeling used. “For Department of Energy, this is your area of expertise, were you requested to build or participate or do some of the modeling?” Schweikert said.
According to McConnell’s testimony, interaction between the EPA and the DOE was limited and somewhat inconsiderate on the part of the EPA. “We got a 650-page document on Friday at 3 o’clock and were asked for a response back by 10 a.m. on Monday,” McConnell said. “Now if my folks at DOE hadn’t worked all weekend we wouldn’t have had a chance to respond and after we responded we barely got a ‘thank you’ and many of the corrections that were made were regretfully accepted but it was the kind of disingenuous interagency collaboration that often was very puzzling.” McConnell went on to say that the interaction seemed insincere. “In fact, I think it was more of a box-checking exercise to show that interagency collaboration occurred when it really didn’t.”
Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) noted that further communications could have occurred following McConnell’s departure from the department, which McConnell agreed with. McConnell served as Assistant Secretary of Energy at the DOE for two years, retiring in February 2013.
Mass. Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lauds Energy Efficiency
The only member of the four-person panel testifying at the committee hearing in favor of the EPA’s proposed regulations was David Cash, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, who talked at length about the state’s involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional market-based emissions reduction program which Cash says has lowered emissions, boosted the economy and created jobs. Energy efficiency measures, which Cash described as “low hanging fruit” dominated Cash’s testimony. “Energy efficiency essentially is something that puts money back in the pockets of rate payers. I still don’t really understand why that isn’t seen as the first fuel, before coal, before natural gas, before wind and solar we should be looking at energy efficiency as the first fuel,” he said.
However, the majority of the reductions seen in the RGGI program are attributed to fuel switching, not energy efficiency, Cash told GHG Monitor following the hearing. Even so, energy efficiency is one measure that can be successful in any state, he said. “It’s a more cost effective way that every state can avail themselves of to reduce emissions and by the way, you still keep coal plants and you still keep natural gas plants,” he said.
