Obama to set stricter limits on emissions

Some states say they won’t comply; opponents to sue

Steam billows from the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H., in January. President Barack Obama today will unveil the final version of his regulations clamping down on carbon dioxide emissions from existing U.S. power plants.
Steam billows from the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H., in January. President Barack Obama today will unveil the final version of his regulations clamping down on carbon dioxide emissions from existing U.S. power plants.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.

A year after proposing unprecedented carbon dioxide limits, Obama was poised to finalize the rule at a White House event today. In a video posted to Facebook, Obama said the limits were backed up by decades of data showing that without tough action, the world will face more extreme weather and escalating health problems like asthma.

"Climate change is not a problem for another generation," Obama said. "Not anymore."

Opponents planned to sue immediately and to ask the courts to block the rule temporarily. Many states have threatened not to comply.

The Obama administration estimated that the emissions limits will cost $8.4 billion annually by 2030. The actual price won't be clear until states decide how they'll reach their targets. But energy industry advocates said the revision makes Obama's mandate even more burdensome, costly and difficult to achieve.

"They are wrong," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said flatly, accusing opponents of promulgating a "doomsday" scenario.

Last year, the Obama administration proposed the first greenhouse gas limits on existing power plants in U.S. history, triggering a year-long review and more than 4 million public comments. Today, Obama is to unveil the final rule publicly at an event at the White House.

Brian Deese, an adviser to Obama on energy and climate issues, told reporters on a conference call that the health and economic benefits of lowering carbon pollution under the plan will be four to seven times greater than the estimated cost of the regulations.

The final version imposes stricter carbon dioxide limits on states than was previously expected: a 32 percent cut by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, the White House said. Obama's proposed version last year called only for a 30 percent cut.

Power generation, specifically the burning of coal to make electricity, is the biggest source of carbon pollution in the U.S., and until now there was no cap on those emissions. They account for roughly one-third of all U.S. emissions of the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.

Power plants burning coal produce almost 40 percent of the nation's electricity, down from about half just a few years ago. That's forecast to decline more as the rules kick in.

The administration has bowed to industry demands, though, and will include a safety valve that would delay the rules for individual states if they threaten the reliability of electricity delivery, according McCarthy. "We really don't expect the safety valve to ever have to be used," McCarthy said in a media conference call Sunday.

Immediately, Obama's plan became a point of contention in the 2016 presidential race, with Hillary Rodham Clinton voicing her strong support and using it to criticize her GOP opponents for failing to offer a credible alternative.

"It's a good plan, and as president, I'd defend it," Clinton said.

On the Republican side, Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, predicted increases in electricity bills would be "catastrophic," while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called the rule "irresponsible and overreaching."

"Climate change will not be solved by grabbing power from states or slowly hollowing out our economy," Bush said.

Obama's rule assigns a customized target to each state, then leaves it up to the state to determine how to meet it. Prodded by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a number of Republican governors have said they simply won't comply. If states refuse to submit plans, the EPA has the authority to impose its own plan, and McCarthy said the administration would release a model federal plan that states could adopt right away.

"This proposed plan is already on shaky legal grounds, will be extremely burdensome and costly, and will not seriously address the global environmental concerns that are frequently raised to justify it," McConnell wrote in a March letter to all 50 governors, urging them to simply ignore the EPA rule.

Another key change to the initial proposal marks a major shift for Obama on natural gas, which the president has championed as a "bridge fuel" whose growing use can help the U.S. wean itself off dirtier coal power while ramping up renewable-energy capacity. The final version aims to keep the share of natural gas in the nation's power mix at current levels.

Under the final rule, states will also have an additional two years -- until 2022 -- to comply, yielding to complaints that the original deadline was too soon. They'll also have an additional year to submit their implementation plans to Washington.

In an attempt to encourage earlier action, the federal government plans to offer credits to states that boost renewable sources like wind and solar in 2020 and 2021. States could store those credits away to offset pollution emitted after the compliance period starts in 2022.

The plan also includes new incentives for utilities to construct renewable-energy projects in poorer neighborhoods, reducing pollution-related illness and eventually lowering electricity rates.

The new plan eliminates one of the rule's four original "building blocks" that states could use in designing their own carbon-reduction plans. Gone from the regulation is a feature that would have allowed states to claim credit for reducing emissions by adding programs that improve energy efficiency for electricity consumers. While the revised rule still encourages energy efficiency, the provision was dropped over concerns about future legal challenges, administration officials said.

One thing the EPA didn't do is bend to complaints from utilities and discard a separate proposal to require new coal plants to use expensive carbon-capture technology. While the only coal plant now under construction has carbon capture, that rule could mean no more coal plants are built in the U.S., industry critics say.

Twenty to 30 states were poised to join the energy industry in suing over the rule as soon as it's formally published, said Scott Segal, a lobbyist with the firm Bracewell and Giuliani who represents utilities. The Obama administration has a mixed track record in fending off legal challenges to its climate rules. GOP leaders in Congress were also weighing various legislative maneuvers to try to block the rule.

The National Mining Association lambasted the plan and said it would ask the courts to put the rule on hold while legal challenges play out. On the other end of the spectrum, Michael Brune, the Sierra Club's executive director, said in an interview that his organization planned to hold public rallies, put pressure on individual coal plants and "intervene as necessary in the courts" to defend the rule.

"Without a doubt, EPA's final Clean Power Plan slated for release tomorrow will be the most comprehensive, far-reaching regulation ever promulgated by the federal government to impact the electric power sector," said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based utility trade group. The group says utilities plan to shut or retrofit about 73 gigawatts of coal plant capacity by 2022, enough to power 36 million households.

Whatever the details of Obama's final plan, "it's illegal and we will not stop opposing it until it is withdrawn completely," Laura Sheehan, a senior vice president at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said in a statement. "The president's relentless climate crusade cannot be put ahead of the priorities of hard-working Americans who will pay the ultimate price of staggering electricity bills and lost jobs."

The Tennessee Valley Authority, the government-owned utility serving 9 million people in the Southeast, is prepared for the new rules, said Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the Knoxville, Tenn., agency.

"We're already reducing carbon emissions," Brooks said in a telephone interview. "We're in the process of reducing coal units, increasing gas plants. We are bringing on a new nuclear unit sometime near the end of the year. We think we're in a good position to meet whatever the rule looks like."

By clamping down on emissions, Obama is also working to increase his leverage and credibility with other nations whose commitments he's seeking for a global climate treaty to be finalized later this year in Paris. As its contribution to that treaty, the U.S. has pledged to cut overall emissions 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, compared with 2005.

"We're positioning the United States as an international leader on climate change," said Deese, Obama's senior adviser.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman of The Associated Press; by Mark Drajem, Alex Nussbaum, Jessica Summers and Mark Chediak of Bloomberg News; and by Joby Warrick of The Washington Post.

A Section on 08/03/2015

Upcoming Events