Virginia reacts to EPA's Clean Power Plan
Citing a "moral obligation" to leave our children a healthy planet, the White House on Monday released its final Clean Power Plan calling for even stricter curbs on power plant carbon emissions than it proposed last summer.
The final plan imposes a 32 percent reduction in emissions from existing coal-fired plants from 2005 levels, but also gives states more flexibility and a 2030 deadline to achieve it. The draft plan had set a 30 percent reduction.
Supporters, including conservationists, health advocates and renewable energy companies, immediately hailed the unprecedented measure while the mining and coal industries vowed to challenge it in court.
Dominion Virginia Power, the state's biggest power generator, was cautiously optimistic, commending the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for making "critical changes" to the draft to make compliance targets more achievable.
"Dominion will work constructively with Gov. (Terry) McAuliffe, the state agencies and other stakeholders on a compliance plan that has our customers as the first priority, ensures reliability and maintains a diverse mix of electric generation," company chairman Thomas F. Farrell II said in a statement.
McAuliffe said Monday the EPA apparently made changes to the final plan that addressed his original concerns about equity and flexibility.
"As we conduct a detailed analysis, I look forward to working with stakeholders to accomplish the objectives of reducing carbon emissions, creating the next generation of clean-energy jobs and building the new Virginia economy," McAuliffe announced.
And Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine called the plan the biggest step the country has ever taken to address climate change pollution. Virginia's 2030 goal is a 37 percent reduction — achievable, he said, because the state already reduced pollution by nearly that much between 2005 and 2012.
"The consensus is clear — from an overwhelming majority of scientists to land-use planners in low-lying coastal regions like Hampton Roads to the U.S. military to His Holiness Pope Francis," Kaine said. "All agree that climate change is real, it is driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, and we must do something about it."
Other state leaders, though, came down on opposite sides of the plan, largely along party lines.
Republicans in the House of Delegates blasted the power plan as a threat to Virginia's "struggling economy" and urged the governor to delay implementation until it's heard in court.
House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, called it "another example of an overreaching federal government" that will drive up consumer costs, and Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, said it will force coal-fired plants to close.
But Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, called on Virginia to lead in renewable energy in the Mid-Atlantic. Lopez is a member of the Virginia Environment and Renewable Energy Caucus.
"We are leaving tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs on the table by not embracing what we should have embraced 20, 30, 45 years ago," Lopez said.
And state Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, dismissed the Republican naysayers.
"It is exactly the sort of knee-jerk reflexive reaction I would expect of the other side of the aisle," McEachin said. "At the end of the day, we're going to have to clean up our air, our water. It is our duty to pass on a cleaner environment than the one we found onto our children. So the real question is, are we prepared to pay the cost now or pay a much higher cost later?"
While national standards already limit soot and other toxic emissions, this is the first attempt to limit greenhouse gases from power plants.
Whether the plan will lead to cost savings for consumers is a matter of heated debate.
The EPA contends renewables will account for 28 percent of the country's energy capacity by 2030, saving nearly $85 on an average annual energy bill by 2030, and saving consumers a total of $155 billion from 2020 to 2030.
But the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity said Monday an analysis by NERA Economic Consulting last year projected the plan would cost $366 billion and that consumers in nearly every state would face double-digit electricity price increases.
"EPA's final carbon rule reveals what we've said for months — this agency is pursuing an illegal plan that will drive up electricity costs and put people out of work," ACCCE President Mike Duncan said. "This rule fails across the board, but most troubling is that it fails the millions of families and businesses who rely on affordable electricity to help them keep food on the table and the lights on."
The Edison Electric Institute, which represents Dominion, said the industry is already pursuing cleaner generation by retiring or retrofitting coal plants at a cost of about $100 billion per year through 2016.
The EPA says Virginia has already reduced carbon pollution from the power sector by 16 percent since 2008.
Carbon emissions contribute to climate change, and Virginia is vulnerable to its effects on several fronts: rising sea levels that lead to increased flooding and storm surge, more intense hurricanes and projected increases in temperatures that will contribute to air pollutants, allergens and stress on crops and forests.
Reducing carbon emissions will reduce the amount of soot and smog that contributed to a doubling of the percentage of Americans with asthma during the last three decades, the EPA said. In Virginia, nearly 9 percent of the adult population suffers from asthma.
Under the Clean Power Plan, the EPA says premature deaths from power plant emissions will drop by nearly 90 percent compared to 2005 levels, and decrease pollutants that contribute to soot and smog by more than 70 percent.
Kate Addleson at Sierra Club Virginia said a strong state plan can reduce pollution, spur clean energy development, create tens of thousands of jobs and reduce consumer energy costs.
"Currently, Virginia is nowhere near meeting its potential in these areas," Addleson said.
Key features of the plan include:
•States are to develop their own plans, using technologies such as renewables, energy efficiency, natural gas, and nuclear and carbon capture and storage. EPA has a proposed plan states can use as a model.
•Plans are due by September 2016, but states can get extensions of up to two years. Emission reductions can be gradually phased in.
•A Clean Energy Incentive Program will reward states for investing early in clean energy by offering energy credits for electricity generated from renewables and energy efficiency. It also encourages renewables and energy efficiency projects in low-income and other vulnerable communities.
