Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed today to repeal the agency’s Carbon Rule, also called the Clean Power Plan 2.0. In response, America’s Power president and CEO Michelle Bloodworth released the following statement:
“America’s Power commends EPA for proposing to repeal the Carbon Rule. The repeal will make our nation’s electricity system more reliable and electricity prices more affordable, and enable the U.S. to be energy secure and more competitive in global markets.
“Besides being illegal, this Biden-era rule would have shut down the nation’s fleet of coal power plants despite warnings from experts and officials that more than half of the U.S. is at risk of electricity shortages.
“Unless repealed, the Carbon Rule would force electric utilities to choose among three unrealistic and illegal compliance options for their coal power plants: shut down; shift generation, which the Supreme Court has declared to be illegal; or install exorbitantly expensive and undemonstrated technology. However, the only practical option under the rule is to shut down coal power plants. We also commend the agency for reconsidering other Biden-era rules that needlessly increase energy prices and make our electricity grid less reliable.
“The risk of electricity shortages has increased over time because of the premature retirement of coal power plants combined with exploding electricity demand caused by new data centers, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and industrial growth. For example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation estimates that an additional 122,000 megawatts (MW) of power will be needed over the next ten years.
“To make matters worse, utilities have announced plans to retire more than 82,000 MW of coal-fired generation over the same ten-year period. Satisfying increased electricity demand and making up for retiring coal power plants would be like adding two more Californias to the U.S. electricity grid.
“If decision makers fail to satisfy this huge demand for electricity, our country will be less energy secure, and our national security interests will be undermined. In contrast to U.S. coal retirements which are weakening our nation’s electricity grid, China and India, two of our most important global competitors, are adding more than 530,000 MW of new coal-fired generation to their existing coal fleets to strengthen their grids and expand their economies. The enormous size of the global coal fleet also means that greenhouse gas emissions from other countries are not only increasing but overwhelm emissions from the U.S power sector. In fact, the U.S. power sector currently represents only 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and, thus, makes an insignificant contribution to global emissions.
“While it is clear the U.S. needs to build more new electricity sources, it is even more critical to stop the retirement of existing coal power plants. EPA’s proposal is a critical step to prevent more coal retirements and make our electricity grid more reliable. In addition to overturning harmful EPA regulations, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, Congress, and state utility commissions should continue taking action to prevent more coal plant closures.”