Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
9/19/2014
The House of Representatives passed an energy package late this week that comprised of several pieces of legislation, includes a measure to block the Environmental Protection Agency from creating or enforcing carbon emissions standards for new (NSPS) and existing coal-fired power plants. The bill states that the EPA “may not issue, implement, or enforce any proposed or final rule under section 111 of the Clean Air Act that establishes a standard of performance for emissions of any greenhouse gas from any new source that is a fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating unit,” unless that rule meets several requirements, including that the best system of emission reduction (BSER) for new sources cannot be set based on results of a demonstration project and that any BSER must have “been achieved on average for at least one continuous 12-month period (excluding planned outages) by each of at least 6 units within such category. Each of which is located at a different electric generating station in the United States.” The bill also blocks the EPA’s currently proposed carbon emission standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants. A stand-along version of the bill passed the House in March, but, like most of the measures in the new energy package, never came to a vote in the Senate.
It is unlikely that the new package will be considered by the Senate either and, should it make its way to the president’s desk, a Statement of Administration Policy published by the White House this week stated that the president’s senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill. The statement also notes that these measures have already failed to progress further than the House in the past saying that the bill “is a reiteration of various bills that previously have been voted on by the House during this Congress, including several for which the Administration has issued Statements of Administration Policy strongly opposing the bills and stating that, if presented to the President, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto them.”
House Republicans praised the package during floor debate, including Rep. Tom Marino (R-Penn.), who called it “a practical bill that would lower costs for energy, create over a million long-term jobs, improve our energy security and substantially reduce red tape.” However, House Democrats decried the measure as a waste of time and suggested that it had only come to the floor to help Republicans at election time. “This is the last day we’re in session until after the elections. But rather than consider substantive legislation today or really at any point in this session … we’re going home,” Rep. Jim Moran (D- Va.) said during floor debate. “The list goes on and on of what we could and should be doing. But we are wasting what limited floor time remains debating a compilation of bad anti-environmental proposals that this chamber has already passed. These bills will not be considered by the senate and they’re bills that the president has already expressed his intention of vetoing if they were to get through the senate. It’s disappointing but it is not surprising.”