Administration Releases Plans to Replace One-Size-Fits-All Regulations on Coal Power Plants

 

 Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Energy Appropriations Committee, today issued the following statement after the administration released a proposal to replace the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) costly rules for coal-generating power plants. Last year, Hoeven joined the president in implementing an executive order to roll back the regulations, which unfairly targeted North Dakota and required a 45 percent reduction in the state’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, well above the national average of 32 percent. Hoeven also cosponsored, and the Senate passed, two resolutions during the last Congress to repeal the EPA’s power plan rules, which President Obama subsequently vetoed.

“We can achieve better environmental stewardship while still ensuring affordable and reliable electricity service around this nation,” said Hoeven. “The power plan advanced by the previous administration far exceeded the authority granted to the EPA by Congress. Further, it would have set unattainable goals for our state, imposing tremendous costs on our businesses and our consumers as well as all of the states where we export our energy. Rather than try to force the grid in a certain direction, we should encourage investment and innovation, which will bring more efficient, commercially-viable technologies to the market, like the CCS technologies we are developing for coal power plants in North Dakota with Project Tundra and the Allam Cycle. This new proposal from the administration will allow the flexibility necessary for states to develop a plan to reduce emissions that is feasible and best meets their needs.”