HOUSE REPUBLICANS CRITICIZE EPA FOR LISTENING SESSION LOCATIONS

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
10/11/13

House Republicans are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to schedule listening sessions related to its upcoming carbon standards for existing power plants in coal country. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the EPA for “shun[ning]” the country’s biggest coal producing states during an upcoming 11-city listening tour agency officials will be conducting over the next month to solicit input on the future standards, which are expected to be proposed in June. “EPA conspicuously failed to schedule any listening sessions in states where electricity price increases may be the highest as a result of the agency’s actions,” the lawmakers said, focusing on the 10 states with the highest percentage of electricity generated from coal, such as Wyoming, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. “Despite being the most impacted, all of these states are missing from EPA’s tour schedule. That means Americans that may be the hardest hit by EPA’s regulations will need to travel hundreds of miles to ensure their concerns about electricity prices and the impacts on their jobs are heard,” they added.

EPA announced the 11 listening sessions last week as a way to solicit input on the upcoming carbon emissions standards for existing power plants. “The feedback from these 11 public listening sessions will play an important role in helping EPA develop smart, cost-effective guidelines that reflect the latest and best information available,” EPA said in its announcement of the meetings, which included listening sessions in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and several other major cities. The GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, however, alleged that EPA is engaged in “selective listening” by focusing its sessions on major population centers. “If the agency really wants to propose power plant rules based on the ‘best information available,’ it needs to revamp its tour schedule and include communities who stand to face the highest energy price increases and job losses from these new regulations,” the lawmakers said. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) introduced a related resolution Oct. 8 calling on EPA to hold public listening sessions on the upcoming regulations on existing power plants in the states that would be impacted the most by the upcoming rule, mainly the 15 states with the highest percentage of electricity generated from coal.

EPA had announced the stakeholder outreach program late last month when the agency unveiled similar emissions standards for future power plants. An EPA spokeswoman said the agency scheduled the listening sessions in the cities where its regional offices are located. “In addition to these sessions, EPA is working closely with officials from all interested states to make sure that we have input from all stakeholders,” the EPA spokeswoman told GHG Monitor. The agency posted an update on its website Oct. 10 indicating that it was cancelling its first two listening sessions in Boston and Philadelphia due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.