Lawmakers pen letter to EPA over concerns of proposed clean power plant's impact on grid

A group of 26 Republicans led by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan expressing concerns about the impact of the proposed Clean Power Plan 2.0, which sets new emission standards for coal, oil and gas-fired generating units. 

“The final rule targets coal and new natural gas-fired electric generation, exacerbating concerns with the reliability of the electric grid,” the members write in their letter. “As such, we request answers on how your agency will ensure that residents and our constituents served by PJM do not lose access to reliable, affordable electricity.” 

The EPA issued the final rule in April as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce emissions across the U.S. Under the new rule, the EPA projects that long-term coal-fired and base-load new gas-fired plants will control 90 percent of their carbon pollution. An analysis by the EPA found that the full implementation of the rule would reduce 1.38 billion metric tons of CO2 nationwide by 2047. 

During the process of proposing the rule, Regan called the rule “a defining moment” for his agency as it “build[s] a cleaner and healthier future for all of us,” according to the Associated Press. 

Congressional Republicans have raised their concerns about the new project, which impacts the PJM transmission area, which is the largest transmission organization in the country, serving 65 million people in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

They believe that the new rule will lead to more coal-fired plants shutting down, placing stress on the system and causing power outages. 

“The Final Rule may work to drive premature retirement of coal units that provide essential reliability services and dissuade new gas resources from coming online. The EPA has not sufficiently reconciled its compliance dates with the need for generation to meet dramatically increasing load demands on the system,” they wrote in the letter. 

Smucker and the 25 Republicans, including Reps. Alex Mooney (R-W.V.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), Greg Pence (R-Ind.) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.), allege that “the EPA’s overreach and unworkable mandates will create havoc in electricity markets, unreliability for distribution utilities, and economic hardship for businesses and families.” 

The letter's signatories are not the only lawmakers criticizing the plan. In April, both of West Virginia’s senators, Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R), also criticized the rule. 

Manchin accused the EPA of “forcing the premature closure of coal plants and blocking new natural gas plants” in April, saying that the Biden administration “is more frightened by political threats from climate activists than by the warnings from our nation’s electricity reliability regulators and grid operators.

“Electricity demand is set to skyrocket thanks in part to the EPA’s own electric vehicles mandate, and unfortunately, Americans are already paying higher utility bills under President Biden. Despite all this, the administration has chosen to press ahead with its unrealistic climate agenda that threatens access to affordable, reliable energy for households and employers across the country,” Capito released in a statement in April. 

The Clean Power Plan 2.0 builds on the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which aimed to cut carbon pollution from the power section by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. 

The rule was implemented in 2015. However, the Trump administration moved to kill the rule in 2019. The Supreme Court ruled in 2022, in West Virginia v. EPA, that the Clean Power Plan proposed by the Obama-era EPA in 2015 was unconstitutional since the EPA did not have the power to shift to cleaner energy sources.