States’ targets shift in final Obama climate change plan

President Barack Obama’s landmark plan to reduce carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions will affect Nebraska and other states that rely heavily on coal plants to generate electricity, but to what extent remains to be seen.

Obama said power plant owners must cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 – a move already welcomed by the European Union but criticised by Republicans.

Previously, the Obama administration proposed a rate reduction of 19.8 percent for West Virginia.

The administration counters that states will be able to develop their own plans for complying with the new carbon limits, but to Morrisey and some other state officials, that’s beside the point. Last year, NV Energy, the state’s regulated utility, closed three of its four coal-generated units at Reid Gardner Power Plant near Moapa and plans to close the fourth unit in 2017.

Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin called the rule “unreasonable, unrealistic and ultimately unattainable”.

Critics in Texas, including Attorney General Ken Paxton – who on Monday renewed his pledge to sue over the new regulations – have said the plan would imperil the state’s power grid and drastically inflate the cost of electricity for consumers. States will also have an additional year to submit their implementation plans to Washington.

“The release of the Clean Power Plan today is a milestone event for the country, but for states in the Southeast the real work now begins”, said Frank Rambo, senior attorney for SELC and leader of the organization’s Clean Energy and Air program.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, has threatened that his state will not comply with the new regulations.

In a blog post promoting the plan, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in addition to lessening the impact on climate, it would by 2030 would result in “up to 3,600 fewer premature deaths; 90,000 fewer asthma attacks in children; 1,700 fewer hospital admissions; and avoid 300,000 missed days of school and work”. They have been at loggerheads over the state budget for more than a month after the governor vetoed a GOP spending plan, and Miskin suggested the administration must deal better with elected representatives.

Obama, for his part, says the plan will save the average American almost $85 on their annual energy bill in 2030.

The Reid Gardner Power Plant in Moapa is shown May 3, 2008.

The agency on Monday released a model of what that strategy might look like, but an EPA official said it “would not put a federal plan in place until a state has not turned in a plan or has turned in a plan that is not approvable”.

Democrats and others call the just-say-no approach risky and suggest it would beckon more stringent requirements. The energy industry has dismissed those estimates as overly rosy. “This flexible, market-based solution will reward the companies that invest and have invested smartly in cleaner generation”. On Monday, Obama and the EPA formally announced the final version of the plan, which differs in some details from the draft but keeps the same general structure. “There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change”, Obama said. We only get one planet.