{"id":38305,"date":"2014-08-18T09:53:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T14:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38305"},"modified":"2014-08-18T09:53:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T14:53:38","slug":"texas-officials-blast-new-pollution-rules-for-power-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/08\/18\/texas-officials-blast-new-pollution-rules-for-power-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Officials Blast New Pollution Rules For Power Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_31335\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A stream of workers leave the TXU Monticello power plant near Mt. Pleasant, Texas February 26, 2007. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/09\/11711701_H3069204.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-31335\" alt=\"A stream of workers leave the TXU Monticello power plant near Mt. Pleasant, Texas February 26, 2007. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/09\/11711701_H3069204-300x156.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/09\/11711701_H3069204-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/09\/11711701_H3069204-620x324.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by REUTERS\/Mike Stone \/Landov<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stream of workers leave the TXU Monticello power plant near Mt. Pleasant, Texas February 26, 2007.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In Austin, business leaders and politicians blasted\u00a0<a title=\"EPA explainer\" href=\"http:\/\/www2.epa.gov\/carbon-pollution-standards\/clean-power-plan-proposed-rule\">new federal rules aimed at reducing air pollution<\/a>\u00a0from power plants. At a hearing held by the Texas Public Utility Commission, there were dire predictions of a ruined Texas economy and higher electricity costs for residents.<\/p>\n<p>Hour-after-hour, the three members of the Texas Public Utility Commission heard why the state\u2019s roaring economy, some call it the Texas Miracle, could be brought to its knees<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fear were going be on the road again to try to persuade people why this is the potential \u2014 if it were to come to pass in this form \u2014 death knell to the Texas Miracle and frankly the kind of economic destruction this would create nationally is a little hard to overstate, \u201csaid Phillip Oldham, a lobbyist for the big business group, the Texas Association of Manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/163318420&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The chairman of the PUC, Donna Nelson, predicted an end to the Texas deregulated electricity market.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s almost nothing in this rule that there could be any other outcome other than the junking of the completive market,\u201d said Nelson.<\/p>\n<p>At issue are new Federal rules to cut pollution from power plants. Each state would have to come up with a plan that would cut carbon pollution, or greenhouse gases, by an average of 30 percent in less than two decades. Texas, with all its refineries and a lot of coal-burning power plants, is the largest producer of greenhouse gases and is being asked to cut more emissions than other states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plan disproportionately impacts Texas and in our opinion it oversteps the law,\u201d said Mac MarFarland, CEO of Luminant, the biggest electricity utility in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>For years, the\u00a0<a title=\"StateImpact Texas on lawsuits\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/27\/a-closer-look-at-whether-millions-of-dollars-in-texas-epa-lawsuits-are-a-bargain\/\">State of Texas has been filing lawsuits against the Federal Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, trying to stop it from enforcing regulations aimed at reducing power plant pollution.<\/p>\n<p>Texas has lost most of the cases, including a major ruling earlier this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court gave the EPA the go-ahead to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. At the PUC hearing, there was testimony that Texas would again file suit over these latest rules.<\/p>\n<p>What would the rules cost electricity consumers? About $20 a month according to one industry estimate.<\/p>\n<p>But the EPA says the new rules would save the nation billions of dollars a year from benefits to public health and to the climate. At a speech in June when the rules were announced, EPA\u2019s Administrator, Gina McCarthy, had anticipated the pushback and the dire predictions. McCarthy said the same thing happened in the 1960\u2019s when the government attacked the smog problem and then again when the EPA went after sources of acid rain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the 1990s, critics cried wolf and said fighting acid rain would make electricity go up and our lights go out, they said the industry would and I quote, die a quiet death. Well they were wrong again, industry is alive and well. Our lights are still on and we have dramatically reduced acid rain,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n<p>States have until 2016 to formulate their plans to cut power plant pollution but in the meantime, there will likely be battles in court over how much Texas must do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Austin, business leaders and politicians blasted\u00a0new federal rules aimed at reducing air pollution\u00a0from power plants. At a hearing held by the Texas Public Utility Commission, there were dire predictions of a ruined Texas economy and higher electricity costs for residents. Hour-after-hour, the three members of the Texas Public Utility Commission heard why the state\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[96,122,41,39,33],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38308,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38305\/revisions\/38308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}