EPA releases modest rule for coal-fired plants

State regulators favor Obama-era plan

Harrisburg Bureau

The Trump administration’s new proposal for addressing greenhouse gas emissions from coalfired power plants will allow states to choose from a menu of options for making plants marginally more efficient.

Pennsylvania regulators and other officials say they liked the old plan just fine.

The rule released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday does away with the Obama-era Clean Power Plan’s broad ambitions for limiting power sector carbon dioxide emissions in favor of modest improvements that coal plants can adopt on-site.

Once, and if, the new Affordable Clean Energy rule is finalized, regulators in Pennsylvania and other states will have three years to come up with a plan to comply with it.

“We are disappointed in the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the Clean Power Plan, which would have been a responsible, cost-effective means of addressing global climate change,” said Neil Shaderm, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The state agency is reviewing the new proposal “to determine what steps Pennsylvania can take to continue our efforts to grow our energy economy and reduce emissions,” he said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said he strongly opposes the new rule, which he said “will harm our environmental protection efforts in Pennsylvania and undermine the constitutional protections afforded to all Pennsylvanians.” Mr. Shapiro has joined other Democratic state attorneys general in challenging the Trump administration’s previous efforts to weaken environmental rules.

The EPA expects carbon emissions from the nation’s 300 affected coal plants to be about 1 percent lower by 2030 under the Affordable Clean Energy rule compared to what they would have been without a rule. Under the Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions would have been 4percent lower, the EPA said.

Thedifference is relatively small