Washington, D.C. – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) simultaneously issued an unprecedented number of new rules to regulate carbon and other emissions as well as water discharges from coal-fired power plants. In response, America’s Power issued the following statement by Michelle Bloodworth, President, and CEO:
EPA’s new Clean Power Plan 2.0, one of the rules EPA issued today, is an extreme and unlawful overreach that endangers America’s supply of dependable and affordable electricity. The new Clean Power Plan is the same kind of overreach that caused the U.S. Supreme Court to reject EPA’s first Clean Power Plan in 2022. Impartial experts and officials have warned that policies and regulations, especially the new Clean Power Plan, that are designed to force the premature closure of coal plants could trigger an electric reliability crisis. Regrettably, EPA has chosen to ignore these warnings. In addition, EPA has finalized other rules today that increase the prospects of a reliability crisis.
Electricity demand is exploding because of AI data centers, electric vehicles, and new manufacturing facilities. This trend is a welcome indicator of innovation and a growing economy that will strengthen America’s position in the world. At the same time, it means that we need more sources of dependable and affordable electricity such as coal-fired power plants, not fewer. Already, utilities have announced plans to shut down more than 60,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation over the next five years. These retiring power plants could power either 600 data centers or more than 60 million homes. New EPA rules will accelerate coal retirements. Taken together, EPA’s new Clean Power Plan and the other rules represent a clear and present danger to our electricity supply and our economy.
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America’s Power is a partnership of industries involved in producing electricity from coal.