Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will be paying close attention next week when a federal appeals court hears opening statements in the fight by the state and 27 others against the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
He is among those attorneys general who have sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the issue. Pruitt contends it infringes on the sovereignty of Oklahoma and is another case of “overreach by the Obama administration.”
It was in May of this year when Pruitt went before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Environment Subcommittee to speak against the plan. It is Pruitt’s belief that states, not the federal government should be the primary environmental regulators. He told the Commission that the Clean Power Plan, described as the President’s signature environmental regulation on carbon emissions from new and existing coal power plants, violates the ideal.
Terry M. Jarrett, who has served on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Missouri Public Service Commission agrees with him.
Writing for Breitbart, he said The plan “reveals draconian impacts” that could affect the nation’s economy.
“State sovereignty matters significantly here, since EPA ignores traditional state authority to manage individual energy economies. Already governors are bristling at the prospect of losing control over their electricity costs—now projected to reach double digit increases in 40 states. In fact, if the CPP is upheld in court, 16 states will likely see wholesale power prices jump by at least 25 percent,” said Jarrett in the article.
But he said it also carries a stunning price tag and is a plan that would shutter 40 percent of America’s current clean-coal fleet. the EPA believes at least 56 power plants would be closed and that means there would be an immediate need for new power sector construction. Jarrett says the EPA has ignored the projected $64 billion cost of new generating facilities and transmission infrastructure for nearly 24 million homes.
