Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/27/13
Congressional opponents of EPA’s recently proposed carbon regulations began teeing up legislative challenges to the plan this week as Republican leaders vowed to attack the standards using as many avenues as possible in the months ahead. “This needs to be stopped. We’re going to go after [EPA] in every way we possibly can to block this outrageous assault on the coal that produces about 40 percent of our electricity in this country,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sept. 26.
McConnell was on hand for a Capitol Hill press conference organized by House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) late this week where nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans—as well as one lone Democrat—from coal- and manufacturing-heavy districts decried what they said was the Obama Administration’s continued “war on coal.” “This policy is a dud. It’s short-sighted, it’s ill-conceived, it’s illogical and I’m proud to join with my colleagues across all political stripes in fighting this war on coal,” said Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.). “It was never the intent of Congress that CO2 emissions would be regulated under the Clean Air Act,” added Whitfield, who vowed to “utilize everything that’s available” to stop the performance standards.
‘Initial Salvo’
Unveiled Sept. 20 to the fanfare of environmental and public health groups, EPA’s proposed carbon standards for new power plants set separate CO2 emissions limits for future coal and gas plants. The draft rulemaking names natural gas combined cycle and carbon capture and storage technologies as the ‘best system of emission reduction’ for gas and coal plants, respectively, saying that both are “adequately demonstrated.” But many power generators and fossil industry-related groups decried the proposed standards for effectively killing new coal, arguing that CCS is not cost effective or technologically feasible at-scale.
Whitfield this week announced that Congress’ “initial salvo” against the performance standards would be draft legislation his office has been formulating over the last several months that would sharply limit EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 from power plants but stops short of stripping its power. That bill, which Whitfield said would be released “soon,” would make it possible for new, unmitigated coal plants to be built but would still allow for EPA to set emissions standards, which Congress would help oversee.
That measure would join the growing list of legislative efforts aimed squarely at the carbon standards that have been introduced over the last several weeks. A bill introduced in the Senate this week by Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and a handful of other Republicans would require EPA to offset the cost of any greenhouse gas standards it may promulgate through equivalent reductions elsewhere in its budget. Another bill being shepherded by McConnell would block any new EPA carbon limits on new and existing power plants unless they are first approved by Congress.
McKinley Rolls Out CRA Challenge
Meanwhile, a group of nearly three-dozen lawmakers in the House rolled out a resolution of disapproval Sept. 25 aimed at nullifying the proposed rulemaking through the seldom-used Congressional Review Act. That mechanism allows Congress to invalidate recent federal rulemakings on a fast-track up-or-down vote. However, the procedure has only successfully been used once since its inception in 1996 since it requires the approval of the president, who is unlikely to strike down his administration’s own regulations. Senate Republicans tried twice over the last two years to kill other EPA regulations related using the Congressional Review Act but failed both times to secure the needed level of support in the upper chamber.
Regardless, lead sponsor Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) said the disapproval resolution is needed to “stand up and prevent the EPA from this massive overreach which will put people out of work and lead to higher electric bills,” McKinley said in a statement. Whitfield said that using the CRA could be possible, adding that Senate Democrats have approached him about countering the EPA rulemaking. “We have a number of Democratic senators who are going to be on the ballot next year and their opponents are going to make it an issue,” Whitfield added.
