Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
10/25/13
The true test for the Environmental Protection Agency for the remainder of President Barack Obama’s presidency is whether it can stay vigilant in setting tough greenhouse gas standards for power plants, former Clinton-era EPA Administrator Carol Browner said Oct. 24. During remarks at a Center for American Progress (CAP) conference in Washington, D.C., Browner, who also previously worked in the Obama White House and is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at CAP, touted EPA’s work on proposing sharp CO2 limits for new power plants last month “They’ve taken the first step in terms of new power plants, but the real meat is the existing power plants,” Browner said.
Under a memorandum signed by the President in June, EPA is required to propose carbon limits for existing power plants by June 1, 2014 and to issue final regulations by June 1, 2015. While it is still unclear what sort of limits or guidance EPA will provide to states, Administrator Gina McCarthy said last month that the agency does not plan on requiring carbon capture and storage technology for coal plants like it did in its standards for future units. Browner said Obama’s June presidential memorandum to the EPA on the power sector’s carbon pollution standards for existing plants was “clever[ly]” written and timed to ensure regulations are completed by the end of his term. “So if we unfortunately find ourselves with some president who is a denier … this will be locked in and hopefully unchangeable,” she said.
