Dr. Stanley Meiburg, Deputy Administrator of the EPA, expressed the importance of state cooperation to the Clean Power Plan.
WASHINGTON — A top Environmental Protection Agency official said on Tuesday that the administration plans to invest in helping states meet clean power goals.
“We are committed to helping states make the investments they need to meet the requirements,” said Stanley Meiburg, the EPA’s deputy administrator, talking about the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
The plan, released in June, establishes carbon emissions reduction standards and “flexible” guidelines under which states may reach these targets. If enforced, it would aim to cut power sector emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels in the next 15 years. It also aims to cut pollution that causes smog by more than 25 percent in that same time.
Some businesses have complained the EPA plan for power plants will be too costly.
Meiburg drew attention to $4 billion allocated in President Barack Obama’s proposed 2016 budget to help states meet the required emissions reductions goals.
The agency will finalize the rules this summer.
Meiburg spoke at the Climate Leadership Conference, an annual event bringing together industry, academic and government leaders to discuss climate change policies and business solutions.
The plan has already faced conservative criticism, specifically from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which issued a memo last week decrying the plan as unfeasible.
The committee’s Republican leadership said in a statement they fear the regulations would increase consumer electricity prices. They also mentioned the plan would challenge the “reliability of the bulk power system,” in changing the make-up of electricity resources, citing Gerry Cauley, the president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
“…it has become clear that the EPA’s proposed rule is unworkable, outside the agency’s statutory authority, and would result in higher prices for consumers,” the committee, chaired by Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement.
American Public Power Association CEO Susan Kelly questioned the legality of the plan last week because it conflicts with the “authority of other federal, state and local governmental entities.”
The plan is a part of the Obama administration’s second term climate agenda, which aims to shift the United States away from nonrenewable energy resources toward clean energy technologies.
