West Virginia’s Public Service Commission is sending a long letter of support for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency move to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public.
The repeal of the standards is “a welcome recognition by the EPA of its past missteps and errors,” PSC Chairwoman Charlotte Lane wrote in a 15-page letter sent to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
The 2009 standard, called the endangerment finding, has been a declaration that six key greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, endanger public health and welfare because of their contribution to climate change.
The finding is a basis for regulating such gases under the Clean Air Act. Legal experts say the finding is based on scientific evidence showing that such gases trap heat in the atmosphere and lead to a range of negative effects on human health and the environment.
Zeldin, the EPA administrator, announced the policy change last week during a visit to an Indianapolis automotive facility where he emphasized the economic effects of emissions standards.
West Virginia’s Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, argued in its letter that the EPA’s existing rules could harm the reliability of the electric grid and increase costs for consumers.
West Virginia is a major producer of coal and natural gas.
“The closing of the fossil fuel, and particularly coal-fired, generation has already and will continue to severely reduce the reliability and resilience of the electric grid,” Lane wrote in the PSC’s letter.
The PSC chairwoman wrote that the EPA’s endangerment finding “is unnecessary and ill-advised overkill that will cripple the electric grid in the U.S. without accomplishing any meaningful reduction in the output of carbon dioxide as compared to worldwide emissions or the absolute level of CO2 in the atmosphere.”