House Committee to EPAs Clean Power Plan: Drop dead
WASHINGTON, D.C. – By a vote of 28-22, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed Rep. Ed Whitfield’s (R-Ky.) bill H.R. 2042, which delays the Clean Power Plan implementation until the courts have resolved all legal challenges to the rule. The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan would reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants by 30 percent below 2005 levels, by 2030. The plan is an important piece of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, as electric power generation contributes nearly 40 percent of domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
Due to the lengthy nature of lawsuits, Whitfield’s bill would likely delay implementation of the rule until 2022 or later — after states should have submitted their implementation plans. This would most likely result in states missing the rule’s intermediate and ultimate 2030 reduction targets.
Friends of the Earth Climate and Energy Campaigner Kate DeAngelis offers the following statement in response:
Representative Whitfield’s reckless bill will undermine the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, provided by the Clean Air Act, to reduce pollution from existing power plants. Rep. Whitfield’s bill has the same aim as the many other EPA-bashing bills we’ve seen from the John Boehner House: to completely squash the Clean Power Plan. Science dictates that we must take immediate climate action. American citizens cannot afford to wait for Congress to play games while the world around us experiences the increasingly devastating impacts of climate disruption.
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Expert contact: Kate DeAngelis, (202) 222-0747, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]