National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Hal Quinn issued the following statement today after new information from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Oct. 26 Cross State Air Pollution Rule Update confirmed the significant impact that the Clean Power Plan will have on coal-based generation:
“NMA informed the D.C. Circuit yesterday that data from EPA’s final Cross State Air Pollution Rule unmistakably acknowledges what NMA and other petitioners have argued: that the Clean Power Plan’s (CPP) forced retirements of coal-based capacity will be steep, dropping coal-based capacity for electricity generation by at least 20 percent. The agency had previously suggested this capacity would be lost anyway even without the CPP. But last week the agency included this capacity in its base case, showing it has not disappeared on its own, but will be part of the capacity forced into retirement by the CPP.
“A miscalculation of this magnitude contributes to the growing suspicion that EPA systematically overlooks or ignores the economic costs that its regulations are imposing on the country. Previously, EPA grossly underestimated coal plant retirements from its Mercury Air Toxins Standards rule. Earlier this month a federal district court ruled that the agency had an ongoing obligation to assess the job impacts of its regulations.”
A copy of NMA’s filing with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit can be accessed here.