The Senate today shot down a resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s cross-state power plant emissions rule that Texas lawmakers have criticized and the state has asked a court to block.
The resolution sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., needed 51 votes to pass but was defeated 41-56. Had the measure passed, it would have had a good chance of making it through the Republican-controlled House, which passed a measure in September to weaken the rule and delay it by several years. President Obama has threatened to veto both measures.
Paul said on the Senate floor that he wasn’t arguing against current emissions rules that have succeeded in reducing air pollution. The measure would have left in place a George W. Bush-era predecessor, Paul said.
“We are simply asking the regulations already on the book stay in place and we do not make the regulations so onerous that we put utility plants out of business and that we have an inability to supply electricity to this country,” Paul said.
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, the rule will require power plants in Texas and 26 other states to cut smog- and soot-forming pollutants that can blow to downwind states, especially Northeastern ones. Of the six Republicans who broke off to vote against the measure, four are from New England.
Democrats and environmental groups contend the rule replaces a predecessor the court found to be inadequate and will help clean up health-harming pollution that downwind states have no control over.
“I am relieved that we can move forward in our effort to clean up our nation’s dirty air, which will help improve public health and save even more lives,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s clean air subpanel, said in a statement.
Texas concerns
But Texas has asked a federal court to block the rule, alleging the EPA didn’t give the state enough opportunity to comment on its emission-reduction requirements or its very inclusion. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has called the rule “heavy-handed and misguided.”
And Texas officials and most of the state’s U.S. House members have expressed continual concerns the cross-state rule will cause power-plant retirements and could produce electricity blackouts.
The rule “will significantly harm grid reliability, destroy jobs and raise electricity prices for consumers living on a fixed income and businesses we’re depending on to create jobs here in our country,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on the Senate floor. He voted in favor, as did Texas GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Gina McCarthy, the agency’s top air official, have rebuffed those concerns. They have said utilities have until March 2013 to comply using their choice of technologies.
“It disturbs me that Texas is now claiming that they didn’t have due process,” McCarthy said. “We solicited comment. And the fact that they actually commented should deflate that issue somewhat, or that claim.”
Texas officials had complained the EPA initially included the state for smog-season cuts in nitrogen oxides but surprised the state by including it for annual cuts in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the final rule.
Proposed tweaks
The EPA recently proposed tweaks to the rule that cut Texas’ emissions requirements and delay a cap on interstate emissions trading by two years. The agency says the changes should help utilities and states ease into the trading scheme. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the changes were “minor” and vowed to continue his state’s lawsuit.
Luminant Generation Co., Texas’ largest electricity generator, said in September it would shut down two generating units at a coal-fired power plants and cut 500 workers to comply with the rule. The EPA has said it tried to work with Luminant to prevent it from taking those measures.
The proposed changes to the rule are “a step forward,” the company said. But it hasn’t said whether it will change its plans for the shutdowns or job cuts.
Folks, do you know how much mercury is emitted into the air you breathe from coal burning?