Deregulation Nation: Coal-Fired Power Plants

WAMU 88.5

Published August 29, 2018 at 9:06 AM CDT

An abandoned home stands near the Longview Power Plant, a coal-fired plant, stands on August 21, 2018 in Maidsville, West Virginia. The plant's single unit generates 700 net megawatts of electricity from run-of-mine coal and natural gas. In a stop in West Virginia tonight, President Donald Trump is expected to announce a proposal to allow states to set their own emissions standards for coal-fueled power plants. Environmental activists say this would be a massive blow to reducing carbon emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved closer to deregulating coal-fired power plants, after the acting administrator signed a plan that weakened the laws that govern them.

From reporters Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport of The New York Times:

The new plan would all but erase [President] Obama’s efforts to impose pollution controls on planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants in an effort to transition toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar power. One of the proposal’s most significant changes would give authority to states to decide how much to cut emissions, while restricting what states can do to encourage greater efficiency and other modifications at coal plants.

When the rule is submitted into the federal register on Tuesday the public will have 60 days to submit comments before it is finalized.

Trump administration officials have long said that the Clean Power Plan exceeded the federal government’s authority. They have said that the new plan operates within the bounds of the 1970 Clean Air Act, which obliges the government to design a way to cut carbon emissions.

The move represents a win for coal industry supporters, who have long hailed these regulations as a tough tangle of red tape that negatively affects their business. But environmentalists say that the deregulation effort represents another way in which the Trump administration is ignoring climate change and its potentially devastating effects.

More than the health of the planet, these rollbacks could affect human health, too. InsideClimate News, the Pulitzer-Prize winning outlet that focuses on the environment reports that “the Trump administration calculates that by 2035 as many as 1,400 more people will die every year from the changes being proposed.”

What does this mean for the environment? And what effects might this have on the economy? Do these two sides have to stand in opposition to each other?

Produced by Stef Collett. Text by Gabrielle Healy.

GUESTS

Coral Davenport, Energy and environment correspondent, The New York Times. @CoralMDavenport

Joseph Goffman, Executive Director, Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program; former associate assistant administrator for Climate and Senior Counsel in the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency from 2009-2017; @JosephGoffman

Robert Godby, Associate professor, Department of Economics, University of Wyoming; Director, Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy, University of Wyoming; @RobertGodby

Bill Wehrum, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, Environmental Protection Agency

Jason Bostic, Vice President, West Virginia Coal Association

For more, visit https://the1a.org.