Recently, the Kentucky General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy held a hearing on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new rule to control carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, also known as the Clean Power Plan 2.0 because of its similarity to the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kentucky and 26 other states are challenging the new rule in court.
Dependable Power First Kentucky commends Committee Co-Chairs Gooch and Smith for conducting the hearing because of the threat the new EPA rule poses to the reliability of Kentucky’s power grid and the affordability of electricity by forcing the premature closure of coal-fired power plants. These are a few excerpts from the hearing:
Committee Co-Chair Gooch
- “The Biden administration has proposed new rules, and these new rules will increase utility costs, and that is going to affect every Kentuckian…[I]f we continue the current path, then there’s no question that next year we will see large rate increases that could affect not only the affordability but the reliability of our electric system….”
- “We must certainly look at our ability to maintain reliability and affordability. [T]he problem is that generally… every administration will have maybe one rule that’s going to have an impact [and] raise rates. But with this [Biden] administration, we have a dozen of those rules.”
Tony Hatton, Commissioner, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
- “This rule potentially forces state permitting authorities to choose between meeting the requirements of the [Clean Air Act] … or providing electricity as required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.”
- “It appears that the provisions of the [new rule] conflict with state law.”
Victor Maddox, Counsel to Kentucky Attorney General for Special Litigation
- “The EPA tries to make itself largely unaccountable to anyone. It believes that uttering the word “standards” or “best system of emission reductions” overcomes the charges that it’s repeating the errors from the [Obama Clean Power Plan].”
- “We are shifting electricity generation…from this country to China, which is reaping the benefits a wide-open energy policy, and we can see the consequences in all manner of ways. This is going to [result in] a staggering rate increase for all your constituents, a 67% to 96% increase in residential [power] bills.”
Allison Wood, Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
- “What this [new] rule is doing, in essence, is it’s going to force the closure of existing coal [plants]… One of the things that’s going to happen is the grid is going to become unreliable and power will go on and off.”
- “[There are] low-income people who can’t buy a generator and whose bills are going to go up by a large amount from trying to comply with this rule. All the replacement generation that’s going to need to be constructed, that [cost] is going to be passed down to the consumer.”
Dependable Power First Kentucky will continue to raise awareness about the threat posed by the EPA rule and the need for responsible energy and environmental policies that put Kentuckians first.