Dozens Of Energy Groups Ask Congress To Overturn Latest Biden Climate Policies
Heartland Author
June 6, 2024
By Nick Pope
Dozens of energy policy and advocacy groups are pushing Congress to repeal one of President Joe Biden’s signature climate policies.
A coalition of more than 40 organizations signed on to a letter being circulated to lawmakers Thursday, taking aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently-finalized emissions reduction regulations for coal-fired and new natural gas power plants. The letter urges lawmakers to back expected resolutions from Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Ohio Rep. Troy Balderson that would overturn the rules using the Congressional Review Act, a tool that allows lawmakers to overturn certain federal regulatory actions.
The EPA’s rules, finalized in April, require many existing coal plants and new natural gas facilities to control 90% of their emissions by 2032 if they want to stay open in the longer term, a mandate that will effectively require plant operators to spend billions of dollars on expensive carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) equipment in order to continue operating some facilities. Critics of the policy have derided its reliance on CCS, technology that they say is not sufficiently advanced to play a major role in America’s power grid so soon.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently finalized power plant rule will kill America’s existing supply of baseload generation from coal. At the same time, the rule will deter investment in new baseload generation from natural gas,” the letter states. “That means the rule will drive up consumer energy costs, impair grid reliability, and chill economic growth. The rule is also an unlawful power grab that defies the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA.”
https://heartlanddailynews.com/2024/06/dozens-of-energy-groups-ask-congress-to-overturn-latest-biden-climate-policies/
