Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
3/07/2014
The House of Representatives easily passed legislation this week that seeks to roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation setting CO2 emission standards for new power plants. The 229-183 vote largely fell along party lines, although 10 Democrats, mostly from coal states, joined Republicans in approving the measure. Speaking from the House floor, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), who sponsored the bill, said the measure was intended to “overturn one of the most extreme regulations of the Obama administration” that he said would make it “impossible to build a new [coal-fired] power plant in America.”
The Electricity Security and Affordability Act would render EPA’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units of no effect and set various requirements for any future regulations establishing emission standards for new plants, including requiring any future standards to have also been achieved by at least six units at different commercial power plants over a one-year period. The EPA’s NSPS rule, which was released in draft form last year, would require individual coal units to cap emissions at between 1,000- and 1,100 lbs CO2/MWh, depending on whether plant operators decide to measure CO2 emissions over a 12- or 84-month operating period. It also would essentially require new-build coal-fired power plants to use carbon capture and storage—a technology Republicans have argued is not yet commercially viable and thus would prevent new coal plants from being built. But Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) argued from the House floor that the EPA rule was necessary to help curb climate change. “We’re considering today a science-denial bill that would strip the EPA of authority to stop dangerous carbon pollution,” he said.
Several Republican Amendments Approved
A number of amendments to the bill were also successful, including an amendment sponsored by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) that “clarifies that the bill does not preclude a performance standard that is based on a technology developed in a foreign country, as long as that technology has been demonstrated to be achievable at a power plant in the United States;” an amendment sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-W.V.) that would “require the EPA to look at the economic impact of such rule or guidelines;” and an amendment sponsored by Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) that “clarifies that the definition of ‘demonstration project’ refers to projects that are receiving federal government funding or financial assistance;” among others. Three Democratic-sponsored amendments—including one by Waxman that would prevent the bill from taking effect until the Energy Information Agency Administrator certifies that another Federal Program would “reduce carbon pollution in at least equivalent quantities” to the rule—all failed.
Bill Faces Uphill Battles
Although Republicans claimed victory in the House, the bill faces an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate and a veto threat from the White House—which said this week through a statement of administrative policy that the “Administration strongly opposes” the bill because it would undermine the Clean Air Act and delay the U.S. in curbing carbon emissions from power plants. “[The bill] would nullify proposed carbon pollution standards for future power plants, and arbitrarily restrict the available technologies that could be considered for any new standards,” the statement said. “This requirement would stifle progress in reducing carbon pollution by discouraging the adoption of currently available and effective technology, and would limit further development of cutting-edge clean energy technologies. Finally, the bill could delay indefinitely reductions in carbon pollution from existing power plants by prohibiting forthcoming rules from taking effect until Congress passes legislation setting the effective date of the rules. This would undermine regulatory certainty and prevent timely action on standards for the power sector—the largest source of carbon pollution in the country.”
