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 The White House said its revised Clean Power Plan will increase the
required cuts in carbon emissions from the power sector, demanding
they be slashed 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The
administration's draft regulation, released a year ago, had required
cuts of 30 percent.
The regulation will also encourage an aggressive shift toward
renewable energy away from coal-fired electricity, pushing utilities
to invest even more heavily in wind and solar energy.
Industry groups and some lawmakers from states that have relied on
coal-based energy have vowed to challenge the new requirements in
the courts and through Congressional maneuvers, accusing the
administration of a regulatory assault that will drive up energy
prices.
The National Mining Association said on Sunday it will seek to block
the plan in federal court. "These [requirements] will burden
Americans with increasingly high-costs for an essential service and
a less reliable electric grid for delivering it," said Hal Quinn,
president of the NMA.
Critics are expected to argue that lower-income Americans will bear
the heaviest burden of compliance.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which
represents co-ops that deliver energy to poor rural communities,
said it projects the Clean Power Plan will raise electricity prices
by at least 10 percent, a rise that would be disproportionately felt
by "the country's most vulnerable populations."
The administration has rejected that characterization and says the
plan is intended to accelerate a transition toward producing more
electricity from renewable fuels.
The White House said release of the plan was "the starting gun for
an all-out climate push" by the president and his cabinet.
"My administration will release the final version of America's Clean
Power Plan, the biggest, most important step we have ever taken to
combat climate change," Obama said in a video posted online by the
White House.
He said there have been no federal limits to date on carbon
pollution from power plants, the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse
gas emissions.
If implemented, coal's share of electric generation in the U.S. will
fall to 27 percent by 2030, slightly less than the original proposal
which estimated it would account for 30 percent, Environmental
Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy told reporters Sunday.
Coal accounted for 39 percent of electricity in 2014, according to
the Department of Energy.
Natural gas' 30 percent share of U.S. electricity generation would
remain largely the same in 2030 while renewable energy would account
for 28 percent, up from the 22 percent initially envisioned in the
proposed rule.
The final rule avoids what the White House called an "early rush to
gas" away from coal and encouraged earlier adoption by states of
renewable power.
States will also be able to get credit for nuclear energy plants
that are under construction, as well as for upgrading plants and
preserving those at risk of early retirement, McCarthy said.
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Nuclear currently provides around 20 percent of the U.S. energy mix.
'CUTTING BILLS'
The administration also made changes to the final rule in order to
defuse claims that the energy landscape was being re-ordered on the
backs of the poor.
The revised rule contains two new measures the administration said
will "cut energy bills for low-income families" and drive down
renewable energy technology costs.
It will create a Clean Energy Incentive Program to reward states
that take early action to deploy renewable energy projects before
the regulation takes effect in 2022.
And it will reward states that invest in energy-efficiency projects
in low-income communities in 2020 and 2021.
The EPA said it has responded to concerns of utilities and some
states that the regulation could lead to energy shortages. The
agency created a feature called a "reliability safety valve" in the
final rule, which would allow states to get a temporary waiver if
the closure of coal plants would disrupt the steady delivery of
electricity.
"I would never accept a scenario where affordability or reliability
came into question," McCarthy said.
The Clean Power Plan is a vital component of meeting the U.S. pledge
on emissions cuts for negotiations on a global climate change
agreement that will be held in Paris at the end of this year.
Washington has promised to slash greenhouse gas emissions
economy-wide by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Brian
Deese, a senior climate change advisor to Obama, told reporters the
tougher climate rule will "enhance" the ability of the United States
to meet its Paris target.
For now, however, the battle over the plan's fate is a domestic
affair.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said on Sunday the rule
"will throw countless people out of work, and increases everyone's
energy prices."
But Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who is trying to use the
climate issue as a wedge against Republican candidates, praised
Obama's plan and said "I'd defend it."
(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Bruce Wallace
and Sandra Maler)
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