Republicans and coal-state Democrats have yet to wise up on climate change
and the administration's Clean Power Plan.
Almost immediately after the Obama administration's final Clean Power Plan rule became official when it was published in the Federal Register Oct. 23, the mostly Republican
attorneys general of 26 states sued.
The Environmental Protection Agency-developed rule requires existing power plants to cut their 2030 carbon emissions by 32 percent compared with 2005. It also regulates emissions of new power plants. That's 870 million tons less carbon pollution, equal to the emissions of 166 million passenger cars, or 70 percent of the U.S. car total.
Although the rule covers both coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants, gas operations can easily meet the emissions goals while coal plants will find it extremely difficult. The Environmental Protection Agency chose to give the states flexibility in how they reduce emissions, letting each come up with its own plan. Most states have decided to do so, though a few have said they won't. Any state that fails to produce its own emissions-reducing plan will have one imposed by the EPA.
In addition to the state lawsuits, this past Tuesday the House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed two resolutions designed to block implementation of the final Clean Power Plan rule. The Republicans who backed the resolutions know they'll be vetoed if they should ever get to the president's desk. But ...
“It’s still a useful exercise because it shows the will, as expressed by the majority … that the American people are not happy with President Obama’s climate change policy,” Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said.
But as Tim McConnell at
Mother Jones notes in all but four of those 26 states suing to stop the Clean Power Plan from going into effect, the majority of residents support stricter greenhouse-gas emissions limits, as you can see from this chart from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication:
There is an
interactive map here.
The majorities in all those states would be better served if they had attorneys general like those in the 18 states which, under the leadership of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, have filed a motion to intervene to defend the Clean Power Plan.