PSC chairman blasts federal air pollution control rule - West Virginia MetroNews
PSC chairman blasts federal air pollution control rule - WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Public Service Commission Chair Charlotte Lane is urging a federal court to halt the application of a proposed federal air pollution control rule until it can be fully litigated.
Lane on Wednesday filed a 27-page document in support of the lawsuit. She encouraged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to grant a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to implement new carbon emissions standards on July 8.
“The targets and technologies mandated by the Final Rule are an obvious pernicious effort to ensure the shutdown of coal-fired power plants in less than six years when they could otherwise operate for sixteen years or more,” Lane stated. “The Final Rule does not simply encourage, but effectively mandates, early retirement of coal-fired, baseload, dispatchable generation that is necessary to maintain the reliability and resilience of the electric power grid.”
Lane said the rule’s goals are unrealistic, it would threaten electric power reliability across the nation and would destroy West Virginia’s economy.
“I cannot imagine a worse plan for providing adequate, reliable, safe and affordable electricity service than the premature retirement of reliable base load dispatchable steam-driven power plants and substituting for that lost capacity and energy up to ten times more megawatts of less reliable intermittent power supplies as will result from the EPA Final Rule,” Lane stated.
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More than 30 years after the last major update of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has upended the ability of Congress to give the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies broad scope to combat air pollution, including the emission of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, further Biden administration efforts to limit emissions face opposition in the courts.