(Daily360.com) – Joe Biden likes to legislate through agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Now, they’re rolling out the “Clean Power Plan 2.0” and as you may have guessed it will cost tax payers more money. The plan is another furtherance of initiating green initiatives, this one aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and will have a deleterious effect on coal power plants.
This new rule is an updated version of the Obama Administration‘s Clean Power Plan (CPP) which was stopped by the Supreme Court in 2016 who determined it was illegal. When the Trump Administration took power they eliminated CPP completely and replaced it with the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule which was designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35% in the utility sector by 2030. That rule was then vacated by the D.C. circuit court which then sent the matter back into the hands of the EPA.
The now Biden run EPA got to work re-crafting it to look more like what Obama tried to do rather than what Trump tried. They ran into a roadblock via the Supreme Court again as they issued a ruling in a separate case (West Virginia vs EPA) that the EPA did not have unilateral authority to reshape the energy industry. The Court maintained the EPA was best to stay within its usual track of regulating within the law.
This time around team Biden is trying to get what is in essence the CPP through by adding some legal subversion techniques to get around the Supreme Court rulings. They main way they are doing this is by focusing on changes they insist the plant make. Including installing carbon capture and control technology which is unproven and highly expensive. The government in return is offering the plants tax credits, but these credits do nothing to make it more affordable and the costs will be passed down to the consumers. Furthermore, they are attempting to require technical compliance within the coal and natural gas sectors to move to what they call preferable fuel sources, in particular green hydrogen which is notable for being the most expensive hydrogen to produce.
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