The final Clean Power Plan pleases conservationists – but our state governor’s reaction disappoints us. This week in CIB.

Washington Watch: Clean Power Plan Will Deliver Real Action

President Obama last week personally announced the final version of his administration’s keystone effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions: the “Clean Power Plan.” As the name suggests, its strategy is built around reducing emissions from electric power production, most notably by accelerating the transition to cleaner, renewable energy resources.

Obama declared, “We’re the first generation to feel the effects of climate change. We’re the last generation who can do something about it.” He noted that “Until now, there have been no federal limits to the amount of carbon pollution plants dump in the air.”

The plan is built around state-by-state implementation of carbon emission reduction strategies. States are being given a reduction target and general guidelines and empowered to develop their own plans. States that decline, or fail to do comply by a 2018 deadline, will face having a plan designed and required by the EPA. Nationwide, the plan is projected to reduce emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.

In a statement released last week, NCLCV praised the Clean Power Plan (CPP) as a “common sense regulation” that will save lives, reduce asthma attacks and other health problems worsened by dirty air, and also cut the average American’s monthly electricity bill by 7% by 2030.

The national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) president Gene Karpinski was one of the leaders who joined President Obama at the White House for the historic CPP announcement. Karpinski called the plan “a major turning point” in the battle to bring climate change under control. Carol Browner, LCV Board Chair and former EPA Administrator, called it “a visionary policy that sets our nation on the path to cleaner, renewable energy for the future.”

Details, background, and related education material on the CPP and the problems it is designed to address can be foundhere.

For those seeking more technical details on North Carolina’s reduction target, EPA’s specific fact sheet for North Carolina can be found here.

Executive Watch: McCrory Fumbles the Clean Power Ball

Governor Pat McCrory and his Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Donald van der Vaart have adopted a baffling oppositionist approach to the Clean Power Plan. They insist on throwing away our state’s head start in developing renewable energy resources, and instead grudgingly designing a plan based on the more expensive option of mandating increased coal power plant efficiency.

McCrory and van der Vaart also want to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing states the flexibility of taking less expensive approaches (like renewable energy development) to meeting emissions reduction. Normally, they criticize EPA for rigidity and limiting states’ options. On what rational basis would they want to challenge the greater state flexibility, design a more expensive plan, and join in suing EPA to make their gloomy philosophy self-fulfilling? There is none that we can see.

Former DENR assistant secretary Robin Smith analyzes the bizarre McCrory “tie me down and flog me” strategy for attacking the Clean Power Plan.

Unfortunately, the illogical McCrory approach appears to be contagious to Senate leaders, who have caught the virus and are trying to pass it on to their more forward-looking colleagues in the House. See the next item.

Legislative Watch: Senate Seeks to Block Clean Power Planning

Last week, the NC Senate approved its substitute version of HB 571, renamed “Judicial Review of EPA Clean Power Plan,” on a party-line vote of 31-12. Before passage, the bill was re-written again by floor amendment, after having been previously completely re-written in Senate committee. This latest version appears crafted to work in tandem with Gov. McCrory’s puzzling approach to the issue.

The final Senate version would mandate several problematic directions for the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR):

• It would require DENR to ignore the flexibility authorized by the Clean Power Plan rule, and submit a plan based on increased coal plant efficiency – which would likely be the most expensive path to compliance in North Carolina.
• It would prohibit a fiscal note on that proposal, thereby disguising its cost in comparison with ‘greener’ alternatives.
• It would require DENR to join in the judicial challenges to the rule, an expensive and foolish pursuit.

In total, the final Senate version remains stubbornly blind to the obvious solution. We could instead “stay the course” on the tools already in place in North Carolina, especially the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS). Our existing REPS law is on track to move NC into compliance with its emission cutback requirements under the Clean Power Plan without massive flips in state regulatory action.

The original HB 571, “Implementation of Carbon Dioxide Regulations,” had started life in the House as a bi-partisan bill requiring DENR to undertake a public planning process for a Clean Power Plan created with broad involvement of all affected stakeholders – from the power companies to the renewable energy industry. This would have been a strong positive message of state responsibility in North Carolina.

“The Clean Power Plan is the single biggest step we have ever taken to protect public health and combat climate change. These historic standards give North Carolina the opportunity to invest more in our successful renewable energy sector, leading to healthier communities and savings for energy consumers,” said Dan Crawford, NCLCV’s director of governmental relations. “The NC House was moving the issue in the right direction. Unfortunately, the Senate is trying to obstruct the process. Our leaders should take advantage of the flexible framework which allows North Carolina to craft the solutions that work best for us.”

Fortunately, the House can simply refuse to act on the Senate’s subversion of the House’s positive approach. While a legislative mandate to move forward would be preferable, it is not necessary, and it would be better for the legislature to take no action on the issue than to adopt the Senate’s approach.

Nothing in state law now blocks the development of a state plan. So long as the Senate’s approach is not adopted, if our current governor comes to his better senses on this matter – or our state elects a new governor – we can get back to moving forward on this important issue.

While the Clean Power Plan dominated the environmental news front last week, CIB notes as well that another critical legislative fight continues to loom. The current version of HB 765, which was mutated by the Senate into the Polluter Protection Act , remains under review in the NC House. NCLCV is leading an effort now to encourage messages to NC House Speaker Tim Moore, urging him to use his influence with House colleagues to remove the worst provisions from that bill. (This includes items like shutting down half our state’s air quality monitors. We don’t know whether to refer to that as the “see no evil” or the “willful ignorance” clause.) Add your voice to the call for positive leadership on public health by Speaker Moore here.

Administrative Watch: Tennyson Tapped for Transportation

Just days after being named as interim secretary, former chief deputy secretary Nick Tennyson was tapped by the governor as his official NC Secretary of Transportation on a more long-term basis.

Tennyson is a former mayor of Durham (1997-2001) and subsequently served as the long-time executive director of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange & Chatham Counties. Tennyson’s designation nudged out NC Representative Charles Jeter (R-Mecklenburg), who had also expressed interest in the post.

As we noted last week, Transportation Secretary is an important post for the environment. Road and bridge-building often have substantial environmental impacts, and the Transportation Department also deals with greener transportation alternatives (such as transit, rail, and cycling). Positive leadership from the person in this post can be a major boon for our environment and natural resources.

That’s our report for this week.