On June 2, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its much anticipated program to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants to address climate change. Called the Clean Power Plan, EPA’s proposal sets aggressive targets that each state with fossil fuel-fired electric generation (only Vermont and the District of Columbia are without such generation) must meet by 2030, along with interim targets that the states must meet on average during the years 2020 to 2029. The EPA projects that the Clean Power Plan will result in a 30 percent reduction in power plant carbon dioxide emissions as compared to 2005 emissions.
The problem is that the plan makes EPA the primary energy regulator in the United States — usurping the authority of the expert state and federal agencies assigned that task. This plainly exceeds the scope of EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act. That act establishes EPA as the primary regulator of air emissions within the United States, and EPA has filled that role for more than 40 years, dramatically cutting emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from power plants. The difference in this case is that EPA would accomplish emission reductions primarily through changes in the way energy is produced, distributed and used — and not through the application of emission-control technology on affected power plants. Imposing an energy management regulatory scheme is beyond EPA’s authority.
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