USA TODAY International Edition
EPA proposal would prolong life for controversial coal power plants
WASHINGTON – Aging coal-fired power plants could get a new lease on life under an industry-friendly proposal by the Trump administration that would replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature plan to confront climate change.
Unveiled Tuesday, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule would give states broad latitude in how they would regulate power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming as well as other pollutants, such as smog, soot and mercury.
“Today we are fulfilling the president’s agenda. We are proposing a (plan) that promotes affordable, clean and reliable energy for all Americans,” Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told reporters Tuesday, adding that the Clean Power Plan “exceeded the agency’s legal authority.”
But by the EPA’s own admission, the proposal could lead to more than 1,000 premature deaths a year, a statistic opponents pounced on.
“With today’s Dirty Power Plan proposal, the Trump EPA once again proves that it cares more about extending the lives of old coal plants rather than saving the lives of the American people,” said Conrad Schneider, advocacy director of the Clean Air Task Force.
Environmental groups and some states vowed to sue to stop the plan’s implementation, just as opponents of Obama’s Clean Power Plan have done.
In a tweet, California Gov. Jerry Brown called the EPA proposal “a declaration of war against America and all of humanity” that will not go unanswered.
The Clean Power Plan rule was finalized in 2015, mainly targeting coalfired power plants that account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. But it remains on hold under a Supreme Court stay pending the outcome of a legal challenge from states.
In October, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rolled it back,carrying out a promise by Trump to push an energy agenda that encouraged the use of coal. The president, who has called global warming “a hoax” perpetrated by China to gain a competitive edge, wrote in a tweet May 18 that “we have ended the war on coal.”
Aimed squarely at coal-fired power plants, Obama’s proposal would require existing power plants to cut harmful emissions based on 2005 levels. By 2030, the reduction would be 32 percent for carbon, 90 percent for sulfur dioxide and 72 percent for nitrogen oxides.
Wheeler called the Obama plan “overly prescriptive and burdensome” and said it would have led to “doubledigit” increases in electricity prices in up to 40 states, Wheeler told reporters on a conference call. EPA officials on the same call said consumer prices will fall slightly under the Trump plan by 2025. According to the EPA, the plan would:
Define the “best system of emission reduction” for existing power plants as on-site, heat-rate efficiency improvements.
Provide states with a list of “candidate technologies” that can be used to establish standards of performance and be incorporated into their state plans.
Update the New Source Review permitting program to further encourage “efficiency improvements” at existing power plants.
Give “states adequate time and flexibility” to develop their own plans.
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which serves 42 million consumers nationwide, supports the plan.
“The proposed rule appears to provide electric cooperatives with a more achievable plan that adheres to EPA’s historic approach to using the Clean Air Act,” he said in a statement.
But environmental groups decried the plan as a sop to the coal industry at the expense of public health and the reality of climate change.
Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator under Obama and an architect of the Clean Power Plan, called the Trump administration’s move “a huge gimme to coal-fired power plants” by giving them a “free pass” to increase not just carbon emissions but other unhealthy pollutants as well.