October 01, 2018

Howard A. Learner

Affordable Clean Energy Rule Hearing Testimony

Testimony of Howard A. Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center

On the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Rule:

Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Electric Utility Generating Units; Revisions to Emission Guideline Implementing Regulations; Revisions to New Source Review Program, called Affordable Clean Energy Rule. 83 Fed. Reg. 44,746

The Midwest produces more electricity from coal plants than any other region of the country, and our residents bear the full range of pollution harms to human health, the Great Lakes and our overall environmental quality.

EPA’s proposed new ACE will reverse United States’ efforts to cut carbon pollution and will allow more old coal plants to keep polluting our air and water. The 2015 Clean Power Plan established the first federal standards to reduce carbon pollution from existing coal plants. The Clean Power Plan can help drive the United States’ economy toward modern renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that improve public health, and boost clean energy jobs in the Midwest and elsewhere. The EPA’s new proposal undermines smart climate change solutions and a growing clean energy economy future.

America’s Heartland is well positioned to lead us forward by delivering climate change solutions powered by wind power and solar energy and maximizing energy efficiency in ways that are good for Midwest jobs and economic growth. Last week, ELPC released our new report: Indiana Wind Power & Solar Energy Supply Chain Businesses: Good for Manufacturing Jobs, Good for Economic Growth and Good for Our Environment. This report highlights 89 Indiana businesses engaged in the clean energy business supply chain at 112 locations across Indiana. Policies drive markets. ELPC’s report explains in detail how Indiana should step up its policy support to compete effectively in the growing clean energy economy. You can download the ELPC report here. This report adds to ELPC’s other Midwest state reports detailing clean energy jobs.

Midwest wind power and solar energy development are good for business growth and the environment together. Renewable energy development creates many thousands of skilled manufacturing and construction jobs, and development, design and professional services jobs.

The EPA’s proposed ACE plan, however, would move our nation backwards and cost American jobs. This morning, I will make three specific points about this flawed proposal:

First, EPA’s proposed ACE is legally flawed. EPA’s proposal is contrary to any reasonable interpretation of “best system of emissions reduction” and does not fulfill the Agency’s responsibilities under the Clean Air Act to reduce harmful air pollution.

EPA’s proposal would replace the Clean Power Plan’s reasonable and achievable goal of reducing carbon pollution from the power sector by 32% with a flawed policy that instead sets no such pollution limits. The Clean Power Plan carries out the Clean Air Act’s requirement to protect public health that is endangered by carbon pollution. It provides states with clear standards and flexible tools to reduce carbon pollution. The ACE plan, however, does not.

EPA’s ACE proposal provides an incomplete menu of technologies that nominally improve the heat rate of coal plants, but provides states the option of requiring nothing at all from power plants. The ACE proposal imposes no deadlines for implementing control measures to the extent that any are required. This proposal is inconsistent with the Clean Air Act, and it abandons EPA’s responsibility to take effective actions to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, which has been found by sound science to endanger public health.

Second, the proposed ACE rule will encourage more investment in old, inefficient coal plants that should be winding down. If states require one or more improvements from the “menu,” which plant owners are not now making, that will lead to greater dispatch of these coal plants and will disrupt the market trends away from old coal plants towards new, clean energy production. EPA should not cause any industry to be more polluting, but its own analysis shows that the proposed ACE rule would do exactly that.

Third, the New Source Review changes proposed in the ACE rule are a giveaway to owners of old coal plants with no acknowledgement of who will pay the bill. EPA provides anecdotes to support its claim that coal plant owners have supposedly decided to not improve plant operating efficiency because they would need to get an air permit and might be required to install modern air pollution controls as many other coal plant owners have already done. This should not justify excusing coal plant owners from new source review requirements. The only time this change matters is when a source is actually going to increase its emissions of air pollution by a significant amount.

EPA’s own analysis shows that this proposal puts the health and safety of families and communities at risk from increased pollution. If the ACE proposal is adopted and finalized, by EPA’s own calculations that could lead to as many as 1,630 early deaths per year in 2030 compared to leaving the Clean Power Plan in place.

ELPC will be submitting additional written comments to the docket. This proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan undermines EPA’s core mission of protecting the public and our environment from harmful air pollution under the Clean Air Act. It should be withdrawn.

It’s time for America to move forward not backwards with clean energy solutions to our climate change problems. Thank you for your consideration.