EPA issues Clean Power Plan to control power plant carbon emissions - Lexology (registration)
") emissions from existing fossil fuel power plants to 68 percent of their 2005 levels by 2030. The latest salvo in the administration's "war on coal" also includes a proposed plan to impose the CPP on states that refuse to adopt it on their own... It will further depress demand for coal and lead to additional economic distress and bankruptcy for companies in the coal mining sector. Far from simply regulating certain emissions from certain industrial sources, the plan essentially seeks to dramatically restructure the U. S. power system to reduce the contribution of coal from 36 percent of total generation capacity today to 27... Indeed, opponents of the plan assert, and plan to argue in upcoming legal challenges, that many elements of the plan extend beyond the bounds of environmental regulation and simply exceed the authority Congress conferred on EPA in the CAA. EPA's attempt remake the power system will affect not only electricity producers and energy suppliers but also every sector of the economy that relies upon electricity by potentially affecting electricity's reliability and pricing. That section does not permit direct regulation of existing power plant emissions but rather authorizes EPA to require state implementation plans based on the "best system of emissions reduction" that has been "adequately demonstrated" for the... Source: www.lexology.com
