Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
3/6/2015
The Obama Administration’s proposed $4 billion “Clean Power State Incentive Fund” to help states go above and beyond the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants came under fire this week during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the EPA’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) said the proposal indicates that the Administration believes implementation of the proposed regulations would be extremely costly. “The President and the EPA believe that this is something that’s going to help meet the demands of this new Clean Power Plan, that tells me how explosively expensive something like this will be for across the country,” she said.
The proposed rule is due to be finalized this summer and will require states to develop action plans to meet EPA set carbon emission reduction goals. These action plans will have to be submitted in 2016, according to the proposed rule. The fund is not meant to help states meet their goals, but is intended only to provide funds for tangible efforts by states to exceed their goals. “The Fund will enable states that accelerate their reductions and go beyond the Clean Power Plan to receive funds for, but not limited to, efforts that advance carbon pollution reductions. Efforts may include providing assistance to businesses to expand energy efficiency, renewable energy, and combined heat and power through, for example, low-interest loans and infrastructure investments. Efforts could also include mitigation or adaptation support to address environmental pollution in low income and underserved communities,” the EPA request says.
In response to Capito’s questioning, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy explained that the EPA does not believe that the $4 billion would be necessary to meet the goals within the Clean Power Plan and that money to help with implementation of the plan is included elsewhere in the budget request. “We think the goals are achievable for individual states, the standards we’re setting. And the overall rule will be very cost-effective,” McCarthy said. “Our proposal, if you look at what we’re asking in terms of additional resources on climate, you’ll see that we’re asking for $57.7 million; $25 million of which is just technical assistance grants that are going to states so they can help them with their plans. Another in excess of $25 million is to help us actually provide technical assistance to be able to work on this issue. So you will see that we’re providing in the core of our budget the funding that we believe we need to implement the plan and to help states implement it.”
