Rural Electric Cooperatives Resisting EPA’s Proposed Carbon Dioxide Emission Rules

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

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A coal-fired power plant near Oologah, Okla.

Carbon dioxide emission rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce pollution from power plants “are poorly formulated and impractical,” executives from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative said Tuesday.

The Oklahoman‘s Paul Monies reports:

The Anadarko-based cooperative, which generates electricity and transmits power for 22 member cooperatives, said it is taking steps to comply with a major environmental rule limiting mercury and air toxics emissions at its Hugo coal plant. But proposals by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent by 2030 don’t add up, CEO Gary Roulet said.

The EPA’s goal, Roulet said at a company conference in OKC, is to close coal plants — more than half the company’s generating capacity — and embrace renewable power sources and efficiency programs, Monies reports.

“Solar and wind are not a solution,” Roulet said. “You need fossil fuels. As far as efficiency, we’d be nuts if we didn’t do that already. These are wonderful ideas, but they’re 10 years behind the times.”

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is planning to use the courts to fight the rules, which the EPA wants to finalize by June 2015. The NRECA’s director of energy and power, Dave Mohre, said the association is encouraging its members to “push back real hard” on the proposed rules, Monies reports.

Mohre said EPA’s projections for its Clean Power Plan didn’t take into account how much it would take to build transmission and natural gas pipeline infrastructure. It also doesn’t give enough credit to states, such as Oklahoma, that already have seen significant investments in renewable power.