Tag: Clean Power Plan

Trump Expected to Announce Power Plant Rule Replacement at W.Va. Rally

President Donald Trump is expected to use a rally in West Virginia Tuesday to roll out a replacement for a major climate regulation that sought to limit carbon pollution.

Trump will be in Charleston campaigning for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Attorney General Patrick  Morrisey. He is also expected to announce his administration’s replacement for the Clean Power Plan.

That Obama-era regulation aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants 32 percent by 2030, relative to 2005 levels in an effort to stem the effects of climate change. The rule took a broad approach and encouraged states to shift electricity generation away from coal toward cleaner natural gas and renewable energy.

The approach sparked legal challenges notably by Morrisey who led a coalition of states in the fight against the rule, effectively getting the U.S. Supreme Court to halt its implementation.

Initial reports indicate the administration’s new proposal is much weaker. Documents reviewed by The New York Times and other news outlets show the Trump administration plans to allow states to decide if and how to curb carbon emissions from power plants.

It is also more narrow. The replacement plan encourages coal plants to boost efficiency by adding automation or replacing worn parts to release fewer carbon dioxide emissions from every ton of coal burned.

James Van Nostrand, a  law professor and director of West Virginia University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, said if it made economic sense for utilities to invest in upgrades to boost power plant efficiency, they would have already done it.

“Spending more money to make them more efficient just makes the price higher that you’ve got to receive in order to make these plants work,” he said.

Environmental advocates argue the new plan may encourage coal plant operators to run them more often and delay their closure, which would release more emissions into the atmosphere.

It remains unclear what impact the regulation overhaul may have on the state’s coal industry.

Van Nostrand said the cheap natural gas and the falling price of renewable energy like wind and solar will continue to drive the decisions utility companies make.

“It’s going to be a great disappointment to a lot of folks in West Virginia that dismantling the EPA and Clean Power Plan is not going to have that much impact,” he said.

A report released last week by West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, showed the recent uptick in coal production will be short-lived. It forecasts production will level out by 2020 and decline precipitously during the next two decades. The short-term decline is expected to be driven largely by a drop in international exports, although continued declining demand for coal-fired electricity is a lesser factor.

U.S. EPA Schedules More Public Hearings on CPP Repeal

In the wake of the hearings the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted in West Virginia last week, the agency has decided to schedule more public hearings about the repeal of the Clean Power Plan – carbon regulations that aimed to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. 

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said in a release that the agency’s decision to host more sessions is a reaction to the overwhelming response to the hearing in West Virginia. Almost 300 people registered to speak in West Virginia – many came from out of state, and lots of comments included requests for more hearings throughout the country. 

The agency will visit San Francisco, California, Kansas City, Missouri, and another area of the country that EPA says will be hard-hit economically by any federal goals to limit carbon emissions of power plants, Gillette, Wyoming.

The federal agency has not indicated yet when or exactly where these public hearings will take place.

R.I.P., CPP? Clean Energy Trend Likely To Continue Despite Trump’s Clean Power Repeal

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey stood in front of the state’s capitol to rally the roughly 120 coal miners and industry boosters gathered there.

“The fight against the unlawful Clean Power Plan started in Charleston, West Virginia,” Morrisey said, noting the state’s role in a legal challenge to the Obama-era rule.

 

The federal rule would have required states to find ways to ratchet down power plant emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the suit from West Virginia and 26 other states resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court placing a hold on the Clean Power Plan’s implementation. Then the Trump administration’s EPA announced in October that it would repeal the rule.

Morrisey, who is also a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, was happy to take some credit.

“We took action when no one thought that little old West Virginia could lead and accomplish things,” he told the crowd. “We’re gonna keep up that fight.”

Inside the capitol building the EPA was conducting its only scheduled public hearingon repealing the Clean Power Plan. Almost 300 signed up to speak, including many coal industry representatives and supporters. Many others, like Danielle Walker of Morgantown, West Virginia, came from grassroots organizations. Walker represented the Moms’ Clean Air Force.

“As a mom, I must stand up in support of the Clean Power Plan,” she said. “Climate change is real. It’s happening. And we need to take action as a nation.”

Stanley Sturgill, a retired miner from Harlan County, Kentucky, who now struggles with black lung also spoke against the EPA’s repeal. But he expressed skepticism about whether his comments will matter.

“Do I really think that this administration cares what this old coal miner has to say? I really doubt it,” he said.

Sturgill was among several speakers who said that they believed the EPA’s hearing was more about politics than policy. Many energy analysts and utility experts agree. They say a mix of rapidly developing technology, market forces, and public pressure will matter more than the fate of the Clean Power Plan, and the trend to cleaner power is likely to continue despite the Trump administration’s actions.

Utility Trends

Gavin Bade reports on the electricity sector for Utility Dive. He authored a report this year based on a survey of utility leaders showing that companies shifting toward cleaner, more distributed energy are not likely to shift back, regardless of what happens with the Clean Power Plan under President Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

“It’s a good political story for Scott Pruitt leading the EPA to go to Charleston W.Va. and really slap around the Clean Power Plan and the Obama administration,” Bade said. “But that fact is that very little, if nothing, is changing in the power sector because of his repeal of the Clean Power Plan.”

Bade’s report predicts that due to competition from natural gas and other factors coal will continue to lose in the electric generation markets.

“No one with a straight face who knows what they’re talking about in the utility sector is going to tell you that a new coal plant is going to be built in this country. It’s just not going to happen,” he said. “And if it does I will eat my keyboard.”

The dominant trend has been a shift from coal to natural gas, something the Tennessee Valley Authority did this year at its iconic Paradise Fossil Plant in Kentucky. The massive coal-burning units that John Prine once sang about were largely replaced by a new natural gas facility. TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said decisions like that have more to do with business factors than politics.

“You’re talking about fleet decisions made 5, 10, 15 years out. So most of the things that are in place right now in TVA’s territory, the closing of our coal plants, and bringing on gas plants, the nuclear plants, were all decisions that were made in 2011 and before,” he said. “What’s going on with TVA right now does not reflect the current political climate.”

State Action

Several analysts said the policies that are having an effect are at the state level. Georgetown University Law Center professor William Buzbee, who specializes in environmental law, explained that clean energy trends are accelerating largely because of state initiatives.

“In the clean energy sphere, the reason there has been so much progress has been due to state leadership in much of the country,” he said. “And that is likely to continue even if the federal government steps back from its leadership role.”

In the Ohio Valley region, only Ohio has binding goals for renewable or alternative energy. Kentucky and West Virginia considered such plans under Democratic governors but abandoned them under current Republican leadership. Lawmakers in West Virginia recently threw out the state’s existing alternative energy plan.

West Virginia native Walton Shepherd is an energy staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He’s been working with other states in the region like Virginia to adopt state versions of the Clean Power Plan.

“Soon after Donald Trump was elected president and we knew he was going to roll back federal action, the governor…decided we’re going to do something about climate change,” he said. “So they’ve decided to cap their emissions through a cap and invest program.”

Virginia also recently moved to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the country’s first mandatory program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using market mechanisms. The program, started in 2005 among northeastern states, uses a cap-and-trade system of emissions credits to limit emissions from the power sector and invest in efficiency and clean energy projects.

An Economic Edge

James Van Nostrand directs the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at West Virginia University. He said that investment in renewable energy not only improves the market for ratepayers, it also give states an edge when it comes to attracting new industry in an era when major corporations have their own goals for using renewable energy.

 
“To attract these businesses to your state you’re going to want to have 50 percent of your energy from renewable sources by 2020 or 2030,”  Van Nostrand said. “Here in West Virginia it’s 95 percent coal fired. If we can’t meet the demand of these large employers for renewable energy, we’re not going to attract those jobs.”

Van Nostrand is part of a collaboration working to re-envision the economic future of West Virginia. He hopes politics don’t stand in the way of his group’s research and business findings.

Clean Power Plan’s Repeal Gets Hearing In Coal Country

Last month the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt chose an eastern Kentucky mining town as the venue to announce his intent to repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule that sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions. On Tuesday the agency returned to coal country to conduct its only public hearing on the matter in Charleston, West Virginia.

Nearly 300 people signed up to comment during the two days of hearings in the state capitol. A number of grassroots environment and public health organizations spoke against the repeal, while friends of coal rallied.

A group of about 30 coal miners in work apparel complete with hardhats sat in one of the three hearing rooms to hear their boss, Bob Murray. Murray is CEO of the Ohio-based coal company Murray Energy, and a leading opponent of the Clean Power Plan. He applauded EPA’s decision to repeal the regulation.

“God bless President Trump, and you coal miners,” Murray said. “I love you, fellas. God bless you.”

West Virginia state officials and coal industry representatives from around the Ohio Valley also spoke in support of the repeal, calling the Clean Power Plan an illegal overreach that would cost the region jobs.

But the majority of speakers were from small organizations who spoke against the repeal. Many emphasized the health benefits that would come from reducing power plant pollution.

Danielle Walker from West Virginia represented the Mom’s Clean Air Force.

“We are Mountaineers,” she said. “Climate pollution has no home in our future.”

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked implementation of the Clean Power Plan after a challenge from West Virginia and other energy producing states. The EPA is collecting comments on the repeal of the Clean Power Plan until January 16th.

Advocates Protest Proposed Repeal, Calling Clean Power Plan 'Lifesaving'

Community and health advocates gathered at the University of Charleston today to protest the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to do away with carbon pollution regulations. While the EPA’s first and so far only public hearings took place to collect comments about the proposed repeal in the capitol building, another press conference and panel discussion took place across town.

Speakers, made up of Appalachian community leaders, elected officials, faith leaders and public health experts call the Clean Power Plan “lifesaving” and asked attendees to pressure legislators to not only maintain the law, but strengthen it.

“Very few people understand that climate change will affect them personally,” said Mona Sarfarty, executive director of The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.

“Less than a third of people think that it has anything to do with them personally and the reality is that many more people are already impacted than they realize. So we are all at risk, we are all in this together and we all need to do something about it.”

Sarfarty said that the Clean Power Plan reduces the amount of pollution in the air, which she said directly impacts asthma and lung problems.

“That includes children who spend more time outside, pregnant women who are more vulnerable to air pollution. It includes people who have any kind of lung and heart disease and it includes the elderly who are more vulnerable and people who are of lower income and may not be able to live in an area that is as healthful as they would like to.”

Critics of the Clean Power Plan say it unfairly targets coal-fired power plants and that the regulations cause higher energy bills, slowing economic growth. 

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

EPA Gathers Coal Country Comments about Climate Plan Repeal

The coal industry and environmentalists are squaring off at a two-day public hearing over the Trump administration’s planned repeal of an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding the only scheduled hearing on the reversal in Charleston, West Virginia. The state is heavily dependent on coal mining.

The Clean Power Plan sought to ratchet down use of the dirtiest fossil fuel. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of the carbon emissions driving climate change.

Among those testifying Tuesday was Bob Murray, chief executive Murray Energy Corp. He derided the Obama plan as an illegal power grab that devastated his industry, costing coal miners their livelihoods.

Sierra Club’s climate-policy director Liz Perera countered that the proposed repeal ignores scientific reality.

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