On Monday the White House announced new state-based goals to curb carbon pollution. A central part of the administration’s effort to address global climate change, the plan is certain to draw ire of the state’s oil and gas industries. And the state leaders are already aligning litigation against it in Texas.
President Obama on America’s Clean Power Plan (Video: White House)
Jim Malewitz and Kiah Collier, Texas Tribune
Calling climate change “one of the key challenges of our lifetimes and future generations,” President Obama on Monday unveiled the final version of his state-by-state effort to combat the warming phenomenon by reshaping the nation’s energy sector — a plan that has roiled Republican leaders in Texas.
“No challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations, than a changing climate,” Obama said in a White House address, calling his new rule “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight” against climate change.
The so-called Clean Power Plan aims to require the nation’s existing power plants to slash their carbon emissions – 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. That is 2 percent higher than the reduction proposed in a draft plan last year.
Now final, the unprecedented regulations could significantly affect Texas. As an industrial juggernaut, the Lone Star State generates more electricity and emits far more carbon than any other state. Texas also leads the nation in producing natural gas – a fuel that policymakers could lean on while trying to shift from dirtier coal-fired energy. The state also is already feeling the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, extreme heat and drought, and more frequent flooding, experts say.
Critics in Texas, including Attorney General Ken Paxton — who on Monday renewed his pledge to sue over the new regulations — have said the plan would imperil the state’s power grid and drastically inflate the cost of electricity for consumers.
“We only get one home.
We only get one planet.
There’s no plan B.”
-President Obama-
On a national level, the Clean Power Plan’s target is somewhat stricter than what the administration proposed a year ago, but the rule now gives states two extra years to comply.
Texas must cut an annual average of 51 million tons of carbon to reach its target, a reduction of about 21 percent from 2012 emissions, according to an EPA factsheet.
The agency said the state’s goal “looks less stringent” compared with what it originally proposed, but some observers said an apples-to-apples comparison is difficult in large part because the EPA in the final rule changed its nationwide projections for renewable energy production in the coming decades.
“Part of the challenge is to get to a place where you can compare what was in the proposed rules and what’s in the final rules and it’s pretty clear some of the assumptions are very different so we’re in a place where we’ve got to spend the next couple of days trying figure it out like everybody else,” said John Hall, Texas director for the Environmental Defense Fund’s clean energy program. “We’ve got homework to do and we’re not alone.”
EPA called Texas’ target “moderate” compared with required cuts in other states.
Nevertheless, Texas Republicans blasted the regulations on Monday, with Gov. Greg Abbott claiming the plan would cost thousands of jobs.
“Texas will lead the fight against an overreaching federal government that seems hell-bent on threatening the free-market principles this country was founded on,” he said.
The most basic structure of the agency’s final rule remains the same as the proposal: States may shape their own plans to meet federally mandated targets for cutting carbon. But the EPA has changed its guidelines for meeting the state goals. Continue reading “Obama’s New ‘Clean Power Plan’ to Address Climate Change is Sure to Challenge Texas”