Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
7/24/2015
Pressure for southern states to refuse compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants increased this week with the release of a policy position by the Southern Legislative Conference. The conference, consisting of state legislators from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, met this week in Savannah, Ga. “The Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments finds that EPA’s Clean Power Plan interferes with the sovereign powers of the states to regulate electricity within their borders and to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of electricity for their citizens. Therefore, The Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments urges states to ‘say no’ to EPA’s overreach by refusing to submit Clean Power Plan implementation plans to EPA,” according to the policy position paper.
The new paper is the latest step in an ongoing campaign calling on states to “just say no” to the proposed regulations, which require state governments to develop action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals. Under the proposed EPA rules, due to be finalized in August, if a state does not develop a state implementation plan (SIP) the EPA has the authority to then put in place a federal implementation plan (FIP). However, the tools available to the EPA in the development of a FIP have been called into question. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in a March 19 letter to the nation’s governors calling on them to refuse compliance, stated that “by requiring states to submit a plan aimed at achieving a lower emissions target based upon four so-called ‘building blocks’ … the EPA is overreaching, as its authority under the Clean Air Act extends only to the first building block related to source specific energy efficiency upgrades.” The EPA’s Best System of Emissions Reduction (BSER) consists of four “building-blocks,” onsite heat rate improvements, redispatch to natural gas, renewable and nuclear energy, and demand side energy efficiency. However, EPA has said states are welcome to use any means they find appropriate to meet their goals.
