Fact check/Would the Clean Power Plan mitigate climate change?
Fact check: Would the Clean Power Plan mitigate climate change?
President Trump signing the Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth executive order.
April 3, 2017
By Sara Reynolds
On March 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the Clean Power Plan, Barack Obama’s signature climate change regulation.[1][2] A coalition of 23 state attorneys general issued a statement in opposition, claiming: "Addressing our country’s largest source of carbon pollution—existing fossil fuel-burning power plants—is both required under the Clean Air Act and essential to mitigating climate change’s growing harm to our public health, environments, and economies."[3]
Is the coalition correct? Would the Clean Power Plan mitigate climate change?
No. Former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy told Congress in 2015 that the regulation, in and of itself, would not make a measurable difference in addressing climate change. Rather, she said, it was intended to promote global cooperation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.[4] James Hansen, a climate researcher and activist who headed NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies for more than 30 years, said, "the actions are practically worthless."[5]
Background
The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was finalized in October 2015, and slated to take effect in December 2015 at an estimated cost of $8.4 billion per year.[6] On a legal challenge from 24 states, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked implementation of the regulation until the U.S. Court of Appeals issues a ruling on the lawsuit.[7]
The CPP requires a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants of 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The EPA set emissions reduction quotas for each state based on the number of coal and oil-fueled power plants within each. It also requires states to obtain EPA approval of plans to meet the mandate.[2]
President Trump’s executive order, titled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth," addresses the CPP and several other energy-related actions by the Obama administration. Section four of the order directs the EPA administrator to review the CPP and to either "suspend, revise, or rescind" these rules, or to make proposals to do so.[1]
The order also:
- directs departments and agencies to review existing regulations that could "unnecessarily obstruct, delay, curtail, or otherwise impose significant costs on the siting, permitting, production, utilization, transmission, or delivery of energy resources."
- requires departments and agencies to submit proposals to "appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind" regulations that hinder domestic energy resource development.
- revokes executive orders, memorandums, and reports established under the Obama administration.
- disbands the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases.
- lifts the moratorium on federal land coal leasing activities.
- directs the EPA administrator to review rules on oil and natural gas emissions standards, and the Interior Secretary to review rules on energy resource extraction and management.[1]
The claim
The EPA estimated that the CPP reductions, if fully implemented by 2030, would reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector by 870 million tons.[6]
In a July 2015 hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith, committee chairman, cited an op-ed by Charles McConnell, former assistant secretary of energy under President Obama, which claimed the CPP would result in a "0.01 degree Celsius impact to global temperature."[8]
Rep. Smith asked McCarthy whether she disputed the figure, and she replied, "The value of this rule is not measured in that way. It is measured in showing strong domestic action which can actually trigger global action to address what is necessary…" She continued, "I’m not disagreeing that this action in and of itself will not make all the difference we need to address climate action. But what I’m saying is that if we don’t take action domestically, we will never get started."[4]
James Hansen, a climate researcher and former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said of the plan, "The actions are practically worthless. They do nothing to attack the fundamental problem."[5] He also said, "U.S. actions to date have been mostly rhetorical."[9]
Conclusion
President Trump signed an executive order on March 28 directing the EPA to reconsider the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s climate change policies.[1] A coalition of 23 attorneys general released a statement opposing the executive order, claiming, "Addressing our country’s largest source of carbon pollution—existing fossil fuel-burning power plants—is both required under the Clean Air Act and essential to mitigating climate change’s growing harm to our public health, environments, and economies."[3]
The EPA has projected that the CPP would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by hundreds of tons per year, but former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy told Congress that the reductions would not make a measurable difference in climate change.[6][4]
See also
- Federal policy on environmental regulations, 2017-2018
- Energy policy
- Clean Power Plan
- Clean Power Plan political timeline
- Obama administration executive orders
Sources and Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The White House, "Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth," March 28, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ballotpedia, "Clean Power Plan," accessed March 29, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 New York State Office of the Attorney General, "A.G. Schneiderman Leads Coalition Of States And Localities In Opposing Pres. Trump’s Efforts To Dismantle The Clean Power Plan," March 28, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, "Full Committee Hearing - Examining EPA's Regulatory Overreach," July 9, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 MSNBC, "Obama’s climate policy is ‘practically worthless,’ says expert," August 4, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 United States Environmental Protection Agency, "Clean Power Plan," accessed March 30, 2017
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "EPA’s Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: Frequently Asked Questions," June 15, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "EPA's carbon plan isn't environmental policy, but pain and politics," August 11, 2014
- ↑ Columbia University Earth Institute, Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions, "Youth versus Obama: Dr. Hansen’s Testimony Against the Government," August 12, 2015
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