Last week, Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and James Inhofe, R-Okla., sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget. The senators maintained the questions in the three as-yet unanswered letters regarding the proposed Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule remain. And now they have even more questions.
"I continue to be very concerned about the effects the proposed Utility MACT rule could have on electric reliability," Murkowski said in a news release. "And, I find it extremely troubling that EPA has been unable or unwilling to respond to our multiple requests for answers on the proposed Utility MACT rule. Moreover, it now appears the Agency was going to solicit public comment on reliability but decided against it. Clearly, we need answers."
Murkowski and Inhofe's letter, addressed to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and OMB Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein, takes issue with the fact they had made numerous requests to the agencies asking that more time be taken to study the impact that the rule would have on grid reliability and that only a thirty day extension to promulgation of the rule -- from Nov. 16 to Dec. 16 -- was granted.
"The 30-day extension represents EPA's first acknowledgement that the November deadline was unrealistic," the senators wrote, adding the extension does not provide enough time to adequately change the rule if the agency determines the need after reviewing 22,000 comments received on the matter.
According to an August article in The Daily Caller, the Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule will mandate that coal plants install scrubber-like materials inside of smokestacks in order to cleanse carbon particles before they are released into the atmosphere. These upgrades come with costs that would likely be passed on to the customers and employees of utility companies in the form of higher electricity bills and layoffs, The Daily Caller reported.
An August letter from the U.S. Small Business Administration chastised Administrator Jackson, stating that the EPA had "not adequately considered the impact this rulemaking would have on small entities."
Several power companies have announced their intent to shutdown in anticipation of the rule, wrote Evan Bayh, former Democratic Senator from Indiana, on Sunday. Bayh stated that these power plant shutdowns pose a threat to the reliability of the U.S. electricity supply and that nearly a quarter of the country's coal-fired plants -- 8 percent of its electric generating capacity -- would likely be retired due to the new EPA rules.
harry belafonte batman arkham city weather orlando the stand winston churchill winston churchill arkham city
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.