AUSTIN – Today the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a report by Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment Distinguished Senior Fellow and Director Kathleen Hartnett White on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP). The paper, EPA as Overlord of U.S. Electric Power, examines the ramifications of the proposed rule to require a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the electrical sector by 2030. Texas would be burdened far more than any other state, and compliance with the Clean Power Plan mandates would require extensive changes in Texas law, including a re-regulation of Texas’ competitive electrical market.
“The Clean Power Plan is less about electrical power, alleged global warming or environmental protection than it is about political power,” said White. “The rule would put EPA in the driver’s seat of the American economy by allowing it to impose centralized federal control over the nation’s electrical system. Energy is at the heart of the U.S. economy. The U.S. Congress should not allow EPA to usurp the state’s long-standing authority over such matters.
“Congress alone can end this inglorious mess and redress EPA’s ever-expanding scope of jurisdiction. The time is nigh for Congress to establish clear limits for EPA’s authority so that federal courts and thus states, can meaningfully restrain an agency which now knows no bounds.”
To read the full report, visit: http://txpo.li/EPA-electric-overlord
Kathleen Hartnett White is a Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and the Director for the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. Former Chairman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (2001-2007).
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.