The Ohio EPA is welcoming word that U.S. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt wants to repeal the national power plant emissions regulations written during the Obama Administration.
The Clean Power Plan never actually took effect because 28 states went to court to block it, arguing that it unfairly and illegally targeted coal-fired energy production. Ohio was among them, as state EPA spokesperson Heidi Griesmer explains.
“Ohio has not actively worked on the Clean Power Plan since it was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2016,” Griesmer says. “And we’ve never believed that the U.S. EPA had the authority to mandate the Clean Power Plan on our coal-fired utilities, and we have been vocal in our objections.”
The Trump administration announced that the EPA will propose a repeal of the rules as they are now written, then follow a process to determine if there will be a replacement.
Griesmer says Ohio power plant emissions were being reduced in the state long before the 2014 regulations were proposed.
“Coal-fired power plants in Ohio have already invested billions in controlling emissions to protect public health in our state,” she says. “Since 2000, there’s been a 36.7 percent reduction in carbon dioxide, a 92 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide, and at least a 65 percent reduction in nitrogen dioxide."
