LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME


[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

News Watch Home

States’ ‘no’ gives courts time to kill power rule — McConnell 

Credit:  Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter | Posted: Friday, March 20, 2015 | via www.governorswindenergycoalition.org ~~

The Senate’s top Republican advised states again yesterday not to submit implementation plans for U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan, predicting that the rule would not survive judicial review.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued in a letter to governors that EPA’s existing power plant carbon dioxide draft is highly and legally vulnerable and likely to be overturned in court. States have little to fear and everything to lose by complying with it, he said.

“EPA is attempting to compel states to do more themselves than what the agency would be authorized to do on its own,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.
By rushing to meet EPA’s tight timeline to submit implementation plans – deadlines begin next year – state agencies could unwittingly commit themselves to expensive and stringent policies that they do not support, he said. Those plans would become federally enforceable when EPA approved them, opening the door for litigation by the federal government and third-party groups.

And McConnell argued that there was little downside in waiting, despite EPA’s pledge to craft a backstop rule for states that opt not to comply.

“Even if the EPA does attempt to impose a federal plan, it is difficult to see how it could be worse than the plan it is asking states to impose on themselves,” he said.

McConnell said the courts will likely limit EPA to writing an implementation plan that requires only those cuts that can be achieved “inside the fence line” at a fossil fuels power plant.

But those on-site heat-rate improvements make up only a small fraction of the draft rule’s overall reductions, he noted. The draft envisions a 30 percent cut in power sector carbon compared with 2005 levels by 2030 because it assumes states will implement “system-wide” policies including fuel switching, zero-carbon energy investment and demand-side efficiency.

All of those reductions, he argued, would be cut from the rule after judicial review. Republicans in Congress are also constructing a strategy to kill the rule, he noted.

“Declining to go along with the administration’s legally dubious plan will give the other two branches of government time to address the proposal and will not put your state at risk in the interim,” he wrote.

McConnell first touted his “just say no” strategy in a newspaper column earlier this month. But many of the rule’s supporters say he is wrong to assume EPA lacks the authority to require the same level of reductions the draft assigns. Refusing to offer a compliance path will only cut states out of the process, they say, reducing states’ ability to tailor plans to protect their interests.

Source:  Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter | Posted: Friday, March 20, 2015 | via www.governorswindenergycoalition.org

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky