Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
7/24/2015
Republican lawmakers from both chambers this week requested the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, which were submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for finalization in June, be returned to the EPA if the draft final version of the regulation “would compel compliance, including the submittal of state plans, before legal challenges could be resolved by the courts.” The July 22 letter to Howard Shelanski, administrator of the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, charges that under the EPA’s proposed implementation timeline, states would be forced to take costly action to comply with the rule even while the regulation is undergoing legal challenges. Representatives from OMB did not respond to requests for comment.
The regulation in question, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, requires each state to develop an action plan to meet state-specific, federally set, carbon emissions reduction goals. Lawsuits have been filed against the proposed rule, and more are likely to be filed after its finalization, which is expected in August.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, have pursued legislation that would halt implementation of the rule until all legal challenges are resolved. The White House, in turn, has threatened to veto these bills. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has launched a campaign to convince the nation’s governors to simply refuse to comply with the rule once it has been finalized. “Despite the unprecedented nature of the rule and its legal vulnerabilities, however, EPA has proposed that states expend significant resources to develop and submit compliance plans before legal challenges to the rule could be resolved,” according to the letter. Ten members of the House signed the letter, including Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Six members of the Senate also signed the letter, including Committee on Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).
The letter refers to a recent Supreme Court decision regarding the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). In the MATS ruling, the high court found that the EPA should have considered the cost of the implementation of the rule when deciding to regulate. “While the Court found the agency’s actions to be unlawful, billions of dollars have already been spent to comply with the [MATS] regulation. Further, while EPA had assured no more than 4.7 GW of coal-fired capacity would retire due to this rule, the Energy Information Administration has projected that nearly 13 GW will retire in 2015 primarily because of this regulation.” according to the letter. The letter suggests that if the Clean Power Plan were to go into effect before its legal challenges are resolved, states and electricity companies could be placed in a similar situation, forced to spend significant amounts of money to implement a rule that could be ruled unconstitutional. Representatives from the EPA declined to comment.
