EPA Moves To Repeal Clean Power Plan

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt announced Monday the Trump administration will repeal the Clean Power Plan.

The Clean Power Plan would reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent nationwide in an effort to slow man-made climate change.

Indiana and 27 other states previously sued the EPA over the Obama-era rule.

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the rule from going into effect in 2016, a move that met the approval of industry groups such as the Indiana Coal Council.

Critics of the plan say the EPA doesn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that way and the plan would make coal-generated power too expensive.

In March, President Donald Trump directed the EPA to review the Clean Power Plan. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says he’ll publish the repeal proposal Tuesday. The EPA is required to collect public comments on the plan. And the agency says it hasn’t decided if it will propose an alternative rule to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Many major utilities, such as Indianapolis Power & Light and Vectren, are already using less coal in favor of low cost natural gas and cheaper renewables.

Environmental and climate groups such as the Sierra Club and the Hoosier Environmental Council have long supported the Clean Power Plan. They say cheap alternatives to coal hurt the industry, not over-regulation, a conclusion also reached by a recent report from the Department of Energy.