Analysis | Senate Republicans urge EPA to withdraw climate rule for power plants

Thirty-nine Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), today will ask the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposed limits on planet-warming emissions from power plants, according to a letter shared exclusively with The Climate 202. In the letter today to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the Republicans argue that the agency has overstepped its legal authority to curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel-burning power plants, which rank as the nation’s second-biggest contributor to global warming. “The EPA has again grossly misinterpreted the scope of authority Congress granted under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act by proposing a rule that would … transform our nation’s power sector with neither a clear and explicit congressional authorization nor adequate process as required under the Administrative Procedure Act,” the senators wrote. The letter was led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who has also introduced a resolution to overturn the power plant rule. The Republicans who signed the letter include Minority Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Of course, the EPA is unlikely to fulfill the Republicans’ request by withdrawing the power plant proposal. But the letter offers a window into the approach Republicans might take if they gain full control in Washington, and the legal arguments that GOP attorneys general might make when challenging the final rule in court. The letter also adds to a burgeoning debate over the power plant proposal ahead of an Aug. 8 deadline for filing public comments. The top trade association for utilities is drafting comments that urge the EPA to redo the proposed limits for existing gas plants, according to three people familiar with the matter. (More on that below.) Environmental groups have countered that the proposed rule is on solid legal ground and will help the nation meet President Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels. The details The proposed regulation, which the EPA unveiled in May, would require coal- and gas-fired power plants to meet tighter emissions limits by either closing or adopting new technology. — To comply, gas-fired plants could switch to cleaner fuels such as “green” hydrogen, while both types of plants could install technology to capture their carbon emissions. — The proposal would prevent more than 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere between 2028 and 2042, according to the EPA, equal to eliminating the emissions from half of all the cars nationwide. Yet the Republican senators wrote that the proposal “flagrantly runs counter” to the Supreme Court’s decision last summer in a power plant case. — In West Virginia v. EPA, the court’s conservative majority ruled that the agency had exceeded its authority when issuing the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), who prevailed in the case last summer, has hinted that he plans to challenge the power plant rule on these grounds. Despite their past support for carbon capture and hydrogen, the GOP senators also voiced concern that these technologies “are still nascent and have not yet been adequately demonstrated” as required by the Clean Air Act. A bigger battle The letter comes as the Edison Electric Institute, the main trade association for investor-owned utilities, circulates draft public comments that ask the EPA to redo the requirements for existing gas plants, according to the three people familiar with the matter. — When the rule was submitted to the White House for review, it only applied to existing coal plants and new gas plants. — But White House officials reportedly pressed EPA to include existing gas plants in a process that EEI officials say was rushed. The three people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. They also were not authorized to share a copy of the draft comments, which they said have been circulated among member companies. Brian Reil, a spokesman for EEI, declined to discuss the specific details of the draft comments before they are finalized and filed next week. But he said that in general, the comments “are intended to help EPA develop final rules that support the ongoing clean energy transition and are legally durable. There are elements of the proposal that are favorable, and we are making recommendations to strengthen them; elements that are fixable with additional flexibilities; and elements that miss the mark.” In response to rumors of EEI’s comments, a coalition of 29 environmental groups today will send a letter to member companies urging them to support the EPA proposal. “Your company has barely a week to decide whether to stand on the right side of history by committing to publicly support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s common-sense standards controlling greenhouse gas pollution from coal and gas power plants,” says the letter, which was led by Evergreen Action. Craig Segall, Evergreen’s vice president of policy, said the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA still allowed the agency to regulate power plants’ emissions in the way it is proposing. The EPA just cannot mandate that utilities shift to renewable energy after the ruling. Segall also criticized conservatives and industry groups for seeking to “undermine” a major climate rule after the Earth reached its highest average temperatures in recorded history. “It’s the hottest summer in 125,000 years, and nonetheless we’re seeing an effort to tie the grid to fossil fuels,” he said. In the states Oil-rich Alaska turns to seaweed as a climate solution In Alaska, oil production and logging have powered the economy for decades. But now, the state is betting that seaweed farming will generate jobs and revenue while stemming the effects of climate change, The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports. Scientists are studying whether seaweed, which has a much lower carbon footprint than wheat and other land crops, can substitute lettuce in salads or replace fossil fuels in plastics. Alaska is already home to the country’s largest seaweed farm, and there are nearly a dozen other applications pending for farms of at least 100 acres. “The sky’s the limit, because we have more coastline than the rest of the Lower 48 put together,” Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) said in an interview. Dune Lankard, the founder of the nonprofit Native Conservancy, said he began raising kelp, a type of seaweed, as climate change contributed to a decline in wild salmon populations that threatened the food security of Indigenous people. Kelp farming is “one of the first regenerative industries based on restoration, conservation and mitigation, rather than extraction of finite resources,” said Lankard, who is Eyak Athabaskan. Pressure points Georgia welcomes first U.S. nuclear reactor built from scratch in decades Georgia Power announced yesterday that the first new U.S. nuclear reactor to be built from scratch in decades is now in commercial operation, seven years behind schedule and $17 billion over budget, Jeff Amy reports for the Associated Press. The announcement about Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle comes as the Biden administration and some Democrats eye nuclear power as a solution to climate change, given its potential to produce carbon-free electricity. But most of their focus is on smaller modular reactors, which advocates hope can be built without the repeated delays and cost overruns that have plagued Vogtle. At its full output, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Several other utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida are receiving the electricity, in addition to the 2.7 million customers of Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co. In Georgia, almost every electric customer is projected to see a higher bill to help pay for Vogtle. Longtime critics of the nuclear plant have argued that a new wind or solar farm would have delivered cheaper power. Extreme events It’s not just hot. Climate anomalies are emerging around the globe. July was packed with weather anomalies that scientists have long predicted as the planet heats up, The Post’s Brady Dennis and Scott Dance report. The month brought deadly rainfall in parts of India and Vermont, raging wildfires in parts of the United States and Canada, and historic heat waves across large swaths of North America and Europe. Scientists say these recent extremes are probably driven by a hotter atmosphere as well as El Niño, the weather pattern marked by warmer-than-normal tropical Pacific waters. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned that if July was a harbinger of future extremes, world leaders have no time to waste. “We can still stop the worst,” Guterres said during a recent news conference. “But to do so we must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.” In the atmosphere India joins rush to renewables, but its rural solar systems fall off grid— Karishma Mehrotra for The Post Endless-seeming heat wave to keep broiling the southern U.S. this week— Dan Stillman for The Post Republicans slam Biden NEPA revamp, threaten permitting talks— Emma Dumain and Robin Bravender for E&E News Biden heading West to tout climate funding— Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk for the Hill Viral Thanks for reading!