MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — An energy industry-backed group predicts what consumers pay for electricity will at least double under the recently finalized Clean Power Plan.
“If you replace existing coal-fired power plants or existing nuclear plants with any source, and right now one of the lowest cost sources is natural gas, you’re going to pay two, three to four times more to replace that energy,” Institute for Energy Research President Tom Pyle said Wednesday on MetroNews ‘Talkline’.
The federal EPA’s Clean Power Plan requires states to make deep cuts in carbon emissions over the next 15 years. West Virginia’s reduction target is 37 percent, which would significantly change the current power plant landscape in the state.
Proponents of CPP claim the cost of electricity will go down with less coal, but research proves otherwise, Pyle said.
“No matter what you replace them (coal-fired plants) with, even the lowest-cost replacement, is going to increase the cost of providing power,” he said.
The legality of the plan will be debated for months and maybe years and could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Duke University Professor Tom Profeta said on ‘Talkline’ Wednesday the EPA would appear to have the upper hand by using a section of the Clean Air Act as the backing for its plan.
“EPA has got a pretty strong record in the courts when they do that—that the courts will defer to them in how they do it. They haven’t done anything that different in this case,” Profeta said.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and at least 15 other attorneys general have already promised a lawsuit to fight CPP. Morrisey has called it another federal overreach by the agency that now has stretched into the rights of states. Profeta said how to deal with carbon emissions is probably more of a legislative function than it is a government agency function.
“This would be much better done through the legislative process,” he said. “Simply because you could account for the considerations for all stakeholders much better through that process.”