NEWS

How Obama’s climate change plan affects Ohio

Staff and Wire reports

President Barack Obama unveiled the final regulations in his plan to cut nationwide carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent by 2030. Obama touted it as a bold step to slow climate change, while opponents said it was federal overreach that will raise prices for electricity consumers.

Here’s what you need to know about the impact of the new plan on the states:

WHAT CHANGED IN THE PLAN?

Sixteen states will have more stringent targets to reduce carbon dioxide than those in Obama’s original proposal last year.

There are two main reasons, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Janet McCabe: Renewable sources such as wind and solar are getting cheaper and easier to build, and the EPA considered that states in some cases could easily source clean power from neighbors if they didn’t have the capacity to generate it themselves.

Also, the states’ ongoing efforts to reduce energy demand won’t be included in their baseline measurements.

“In the proposal, we looked at each state in isolation,” said McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s office of air and radiation. “In the final rule, we have opened it up so we could look at capacity for renewables and natural gas across the region.”

Thirty-one states’ targets were loosened, but the tougher goals for the others make the overall plan more ambitious than the original proposal.

WHAT DOES OHIO THINK?

The head of Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency says President Barack Obama’s plan to cut power plant emissions raises legal questions about federal authority and courts should have a chance to review it.

Director Craig Butler said he believed it was “irresponsible” to implement the new rules until the courts decide whether the U.S. EPA has the authority. He said forcing states to rush forward with implementing the plan deprives the courts of that chance and “will drive changes that are unrecoverable.”

Gov. John Kasich was even more critical. Speaking to reporters after a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, he said, “I don't think it's a climate change plan. I think it's an unemployment plan.”

Kasich further said, “I just am not convinced that all this regulatory imposition that would wreck a state like Ohio, and many other states, is going to be upheld in courts. ... I mean, we all want to have a clean environment ... My understanding is they don't like coal, they don't like natural gas; I don't know what they like. They ought to start by telling us what they're for.”

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel cautioned that the plan had the potential to raise electric rates for Buckeyes even though electric rates in Ohio are higher than 32 other states.

“Therefore, Ohio should use tools like energy efficiency to reduce the costs of compliance with the new clean-air rules and thereby limit further increases to Ohioans’ electric bills,” spokesman Dan Doron said in a statement.

The proposal was lauded by state environmental groups.

WHAT’S NEXT?

States have until 2018 to submit their final emission reduction plans to the EPA. After that, the reductions begin in gradual step-down phases beginning in 2022 through 2029, with the final targets to be met in 2030.

WHAT HAPPENS IF A STATE DOESN’T TURN IN A PLAN?

Some state officials who oppose the rule have said they are considering not submitting a plan at all to the EPA. Any state that doesn’t file a plan, or submits one that is unworkable under the federal rule, will be forced to use a federal model, McCabe said.

Ohio EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer says the agency will work on a state implementation plan.

WHICH STATES ARE EXEMPT?

Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii. Vermont does not have fossil-fuel power plants. Alaska and Hawaii are isolated from the rest of the nation’s electrical grid, leaving EPA officials without the data they used to set goals for the other states. EPA officials prefer to call Alaska and Hawaii deferments rather than exemptions.