CHARLESTON – The Public Service Commission of West Virginia endorses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to roll back stiff regulations on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from fossil-fuel electricity plants.
The repeal of the standards is “a welcome recognition by the EPA of its past missteps and errors,” PSC Chairman Charlotte R. Lane said in a 15-page letter sent to EPA Administrator Lee M. Zeldin.
“The present EPA carbon rule for existing power plants would, if it remains in effect, severely cripple the reliability and resilience of the electric power grid,” Lane wrote.
The Commission supports repeal of a 2015 rule regarding limits on carbon emission from fossil-fuel plants; a 2024 rule on carbon capture and sequestrations on new or reconstructed gas turbine generation units; a 2024 rule on carbon emissions from current power plants; and the rescinding and rollback of other, related standards.
“There is no demonstration in the analysis of the existing rules that GHG emission from fossil fuel-fired generation contributed to dangerous air pollution,” Lane asserted.
“The price to be paid for the existing rule … is simply too high,” she wrote.
By issuing the original rules, EPA was “setting unrealistic standards that would force coal and natural-gas generating plants to close,” Lane wrote. The closures would result because EPA was relying on “unproven, unrealistic” technology to make its findings.
