Trump ready with weaker clean energy plan

The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a new rule that will replace Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) and give states the chance to decide individually how to address pollution from existing coal-fired power plants.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the so-called Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule, which sets emission guidelines but leaves it to each state to develop greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction plans. The agency’s goal is to repeal Obama’s CPP from 2015 because it “exceeded EPA's authority”.

RESPONSE

While Obama’s plan was stayed by the US Supreme Court and never became effective, Trump’s ACE rule is considered by environmental groups like the Sierra Club to be “an unlawfully weak carbon pollution policy” that would “do next to nothing to fight the climate crisis”.

“The proposed rollback of life-saving clean air and climate safeguards is unacceptable and exposes [Andrew] Wheeler’s EPA as a puppet of the very coal executives who used to sign his paychecks and want to pollute with impunity,” stated David Smedick, campaign and policy director at the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter. He urged the state of Maryland to come up with a concrete plan to transition away from coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, New York governor Andrew Cuomo urged EPA’s acting administrator Andrew Wheeler to abandon the planned move. In a letter to Wheeler, Cuomo called the proposal “a shameless and misguided giveaway to the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists”. The governor reaffirmed New York’s plans to shut down all coal-fired power plants in the state by 2020. Not only does Cuomo expect the ACE rule to increase pollution, he believes that it will also hurt Americans economically by ceding future economic leadership in renewable energy to China.

“I urge you to change course, for everyone's sake,” Cuomo stated.

The same day, New York’s governor announced that the state is joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, an international coalition of governments, businesses, and other organisations that was launched by the UK and Canada on the margins of COP 23. The purpose of the alliance is to lead the rest of the world in ending the use of traditional coal power.

ACE RULE’S MAIN ACTIONS

Trump’s ACE rule outlines four main actions through which to work on reducing GHG emissions. These include defining the “best system of emission reduction” (BSER) for existing power plants as on-site, heat-rate efficiency improvements; providing states with a list of “candidate technologies” that can be used to establish standards of performance; updating the New Source Review (NSR) permitting programme to promote efficiency improvements at existing power plants; and aligning regulations to give states adequate time and flexibility to develop their state plans.

EPA estimates that replacing the CPP with the new proposal could provide USD 400 million (EUR 346m) in annual net benefits, and claims that the move would reduce the compliance burden by up to USD 400 million per year when compared to CPP. According to the agency, the rule could reduce 2030 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 1.5% from projected levels without the CPP.

Comments on EPA’s proposal will be possible for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The agency said it will hold a public hearing.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.865)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!