A proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan (CPP) has received strong support from Republicans on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Every Republican member of the panel sent a letter today supporting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt's repeal proposal.
Calling the regulation unlawful and overreaching, the senators assert that the CPP went against the basic tenets of the Clean Air Act, which assigned states the primary responsibility of implementing the act. Opponents of the CPP rule say it would have forced coal plant closures and cost the nation $33 billion by 2030.
“When President Obama finalized the CPP in 2015, we opposed it because of the pervasive, negative effects it would have had on Americans across the country. The CPP would have driven up energy prices, eliminated American jobs, and hurt local communities that depend on coal,” the senators wrote.
Twenty-seven states challenged the CPP in court, which lead to the Supreme Court halting the rule’s implementation in 2016.
On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order rescinding a number of the Obama administration’s climate-related initiatives. It also directed the EPA and the Department of the Interior to review and – if appropriate – suspend, revise, or rescind regulations affecting the oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, and electric-generation sectors of our economy.
The EPA published a proposal to repeal the CPP rule in October. The EPA held a listening session on the repeal of the CPP in West Virginia, where passionate testimony was delivered on both sides of the issue. The agency will hold listening sessions in Gillette, Wyoming., Kansas City, Missouri, and San Francisco, California.
