A group of 26 Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan expressing concerns about the impact of the Clean Power Plan 2.0, which would set new emissions standards for coal, oil and gas-fired power plants.
“The final rule targets coal and new natural gas-fired generation, exacerbating concerns about grid reliability,” the members wrote in the letter. “As such, we ask how your Administration will ensure that the residents and constituents served by PJM do not lose access to reliable, affordable electricity.”
The EPA issued The final rule was released in April as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce emissions across the U.S. The EPA projects that under the new rule, long-term coal-fired power plants and new baseload gas-fired power plants could curb 90 percent of their carbon pollution. If fully implemented, the rule would reduce 1.38 billion tons of CO2 nationwide by 2047, according to an EPA analysis.
In proposing the rules, Regan It is called He called the rule a “defining moment” for his agency.[s] According to the Associated Press, this will result in “a cleaner, healthier future for us all.”
Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about the new project, which would affect the PJM transmission area, the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, serving 65 million people in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
They believe the new rules will force more coal-fired power plants to close, straining the system and causing blackouts.
“The final rule could encourage early retirement of coal units that provide critical reliability services and discourage new gas resources from coming online. EPA has not sufficiently aligned the compliance date with the need to generate electricity to meet dramatic increases in load demand on the system,” they wrote in the letter.
“EPA’s overreach and unenforceable orders will wreak havoc on electricity markets, make electric utility companies less reliable, and cause economic hardship for businesses and families,” the letter reads in part to 25 Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Alex Mooney (R-VA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Greg Pence (R-IN) and Scott Perry (R-PA).
The letter’s signatories aren’t the only lawmakers to criticize the plan: West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin (Democrat) and Shelley Moore Capito (R) also criticized the rule in April.
Manchin Accused He accused the EPA in April of “forcing the early retirement of coal-fired power plants and blocking the construction of new natural gas-fired power plants” and said the Biden administration “fears political intimidation from climate activists more than it fears warnings from our nation’s electric reliability regulators and grid operators.”
“The EPA’s electric vehicle mandate is expected to cause a surge in demand for electricity, and unfortunately, Americans are already facing higher utility bills under President Biden. Yet the Administration has chosen to pursue unrealistic climate change policies that threaten access to affordable and reliable energy for families and employers across the country,” Capito said. The statement was released in April.
Clean Power Plan 2.0 Build The Obama-era Clean Power Plan aimed to cut carbon pollution from the power sector by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.
The rule went into effect in 2015. However, the Trump administration moved to repeal it in 2019. In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of West Virginia v. EPA that the Clean Power Plan proposed by the Obama-era EPA in 2015 was unconstitutional because the EPA lacked the authority to transition to cleaner energy sources.
