News Releases from Headquarters›Air and Radiation (OAR)
EPA Announces Additional Public Listening Sessions on Proposed Repeal of Clean Power Plan
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold three additional public listening sessions on the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan in San Francisco, Calif., Gillette, Wyo. and Kansas City, Mo.
“Due to the overwhelming response to our West Virginia hearing, we are announcing additional opportunities for the public to voice their views to the Agency,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Public listening sessions will be on EPA’s proposed repeal of the Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units (commonly known as the Clean Power Plan). Dates and specific locations will be released in coming weeks; please see the website for details. All persons wanting to speak are encouraged to register in advance.
“The Trump administration is listening to the people of Wyoming,” said U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). “Today’s announcement that the EPA will hold a listening session in Gillette, on the impacts of the so-called ‘Clean Power Plan,’ demonstrates the administration’s commitment to hear directly from the people who would have been hurt most by this punishing regulation. The Clean Power Plan would have meant lost jobs for energy workers in Gillette and across Wyoming. I am thankful to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for his leadership on this important issue.”
Registration information will be posted at: https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/electric-utility-generating-units-repealing-clean-power-plan
Oral comments and supporting information presented at each session will be included in the docket for this proceeding.
Written comments about EPA’s proposal must be received by the last day of the comment period, January 16, 2018. Comments should be identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355 and may be submitted by one of the methods listed on the Clean Power Plan Proposed Repeal: How to Comment web page.
Background:
Soon after the previous Administration issued the Clean Power Plan in 2015, 150 entities including 27 states, 24 trade associations, 37 rural electric co-ops, and three labor unions challenged the CPP, highlighting a range of legal and technical concerns. A few months later, the United States Supreme Court stayed the CPP, immediately halting implementation—the first time the Supreme Court had ever issued a stay to block the enforcement of a regulation.
On March 28, 2017, Administrator Pruitt signed a notice indicating the EPA’s intent to review the Clean Power Plan, in accord with the President’s Energy Independence Executive Order. On October 16, the EPA proposed to repeal the Clean Power Plan, proposing that it is not consistent with the Clean Air Act. EPA is now taking comment on that proposal and has extended the public comment period to January 16, 2018.