The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced its new rule that will roll back the greenhouse-gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-burning power plants. The regulations long had been expected after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA was within its rights to regulate the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change, and the agency has been steadily crafting the rules since. The result is a state-by-state approach that allows flexibility in meeting the goal of reducing the United States’ overall carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants by up to 30 percent of the 2005 level by 2030. Each state’s targets will be different. Colorado has a head start on the effort.
Because of a series of legislative and voter actions in the state, Colorado has long embraced the notion of reducing its reliance on electricity derived from burning coal. In 2004, voters passed Amendment 37, which requires that 10 percent of the state’s electricity – from large retail providers – come from renewable sources by 2015. In 2010, the Legislature expanded that standard to 30 percent for large utilities and 20 percent for rural co-ops. The Legislature also passed a measure, developed with cooperation from utilities and conservation groups, requiring coal-fired plants to submit plans for converting to less-polluting means of generating electricity. For now, that largely means natural gas, which is not an ideal solution but, pound for pound, burns far cleaner than coal.
The net result of these and other moves to clean up Colorado’s energy act puts the state in an excellent position to comply with the EPA’s newly released rule. That is happy news for Colorado’s air quality and the state’s ability to lessen its contribution to climate change. It also shows states and entities less willing to make the shift that it indeed is possible and that reducing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants will neither send the United States into the dark ages nor bankrupt the country.
Most Americans – 70 percent – know this and support the EPA’s new rule, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. In fact, Americans from both political parties are so supportive of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions that they are willing to pay more for electricity to achieve that goal.
Even those living in coal country support limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from coal, but Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does not seem to have noticed. McConnell on Tuesday introduced a measure that would block the rules unless the secretary of Labor affirms that no jobs will be lost as a result, the Congressional Budget Office swears that economic growth will not be impeded and the Department of Energy can prove that electricity rates will not rise. McConnell misses the point.
The EPA’s rules have been a long time coming, and many states – Colorado a leader among them – have been working to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in anticipation of the coming changes and, more importantly, because it is the right thing to do. The rules will require behavior to change. That is true of all new rules. Colorado’s forethought will make the transition easier and has positioned the state to meet the new standards with relative ease. How nice it would be for Colorado to willingly exceed them.
