Washington, D.C.—Ohio is one of 27 states that filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay EPA’s power plant rule that was finalized in early May.
Declarations of harm were also filed, including a declaration from Buckeye Power—the not-for-profit power generation corporation for Ohio’s electric cooperatives.
The statement reads, ‘given the loss of baseload power, the inability for new coal or gas-fired plants to meet the level of carbon capture required by the power plant rule and the time required to build even intermittent renewables or low-capacity turbines, Buckeye Power Inc. expects reliability issues and significantly higher electric rates for its consumers if the power plant rule goes into effect. Read Buckeye Power’s full statement of harm here.
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the states’ requests for a stay last week. That’s why the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, or NRECA, and the states went straight to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“EPA’s power plant rule is unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable,” said Jim Matheson, President and CEO of NRECA. “It undermines electric reliability and poses immediate and grave consequences for an already stressed electric grid.”
The rule would force the premature closure of power plants that are critical to maintaining reliability, even as electricity demand surges.
Michelle Bloodworth, the President and CEO of America’s Power, an organization which supports reliable, fossil-fuel based power generation, issued this statement about the state’s U.S. Supreme Court fight:
"We commend these states for asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop EPA from implementing the Clean Power Plan 2.0. Halting the rule until legal challenges are settled is necessary to prevent utilities from wasting hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars in an attempt to comply with a rule that is not only an illegal overreach but will undermine the reliability of our electricity system, reduce supplies of electricity at the same time electricity demand is exploding, and allow the administration to impose its unrealistic and expensive energy preferences on states and consumers.
By issuing the rule, EPA has ignored the concerns that states, grid operators, utility commissioners, America’s Power, and many others have expressed about the rule’s impacts.
The Clean Power Plan 2.0 is designed to force the closure of coal power plants even though they provide dependable electricity to ratepayers in 40 states. Because of artificial intelligence and other energy-intensive developments throughout the economy, the U.S. needs highly dependable sources of electricity, including coal, that enable our nation to be energy secure.
We simply cannot eliminate coal and expect to maintain a reliable, affordable, and secure supply of electricity.
America’s Power will also be filing a stay motion with the Supreme Court, and we are optimistic that the courts will determine that EPA has overreached again, just as EPA did when it issued the original Clean Power Plan under former President Obama."
