Calling climate change “one of the key challenges of our lifetimes and future generations,” President Obama on Monday unveiled the final version of his state-by-state effort to combat the phenomenon by reshaping the nation’s energy sector — a plan that has roiled Republican leaders in Texas.
“No challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations, than a changing climate,” Obama said in a White House address, calling his new rule “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight” against climate change.
The so-called Clean Power Plan aims to require the nation’s existing power plants to slash their carbon emissions – 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Now final, the unprecedented regulations could significantly affect Texas. As an industrial juggernaut, Texas generates more electricity and emits far more carbon than any other state. Texas also leads the nation in producing natural gas – a fuel that policymakers could lean on while trying to shift from dirtier coal-fired energy. The state also is already feeling the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, extreme heat and drought, and more frequent flooding, experts say.
Critics in Texas have said the plan would threaten the state's power grid and increase electric prices.
The Clean Power Plan's target is a bit stricter than what the administration proposed a year ago, but the rule now gives states two extra years to comply.
Under the initial Clean Power Plan proposal, Texas would have been required to cut roughly 200 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in the next two decades – a 43 percent reduction from 2013 levels. The Environmental Protection Agency has yet to release the state’s revised target.
The most basic structure of the agency’s final rule remains the same as the proposal: States may shape their own plans to meet federally mandated targets for cutting carbon. But the EPA has changed its guidelines for meeting the state goals.
States may choose between two types of plans. That includes an “emission standards” option that sets performance rates for specific power plants. Or, states may adopt a program that includes a mixture of measures, such those that incentivize renewable energy or improve energy efficiency.
The rule encourages – but does not require – states to adopt a cap and trade program – a scheme in which companies bid on the right to pollute. Examples include a two-year old program in California, and a nine-state effort in the northeast that’s more than a decade old.
States now have until September 2018 to submit a final plan, meaning Texas could use the 2017 legislative session to hash one out.
But it’s not clear that Texas leaders will play ball, with many Republicans nationwide calling on state to just say no to the regulations.
Bills that would have directed Texas to adopt a climate plan – or even just a backup, should the state lose its legal challenge – went nowhere in the 2015 legislative session amid opposition from certain industry groups.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has called the regulations part of Obama’s “war on coal and fossil fuels,” announced the state's intention to sue over the plan in May. And Republicans statewide – including Gov. Greg Abbott – have loudly panned the original proposal, saying it will raise utility bills and threaten the reliability of the electric grid. (Obama stressed Monday that his plan actually would ensure grid reliability and save consumers money on their electric bills — $85 per year for the average American by 2030.)
In a statement Monday criticizing the proposal, Abbott said the plan would cost thousands of jobs.
"Texas will lead the fight against an overreaching federal government that seems hell-bent on threatening the free-market principles this country was founded on,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the regulations a “lawless and radical attempt to destabilize the Nation’s energy system.”
“I urge leaders of both parties, including Democrats who represent communities that will be devastated by this reckless policy, to stand up against this Administration’s dangerous agenda of economic decline,” Cruz, a GOP presidential contender, said Monday in a statement.
If Texas ignores the rules, the EPA will construct its own plan for Texas. Democrats and others call that approach risky and suggest it would beckon more stringent requirements. Well-positioned utilities – those that have shifted resources away from coal – are among those calling for Texas to provide some certainty by adopting a plan.
One of those utilities, Houston-based Calpine, called Monday’s announcement “a seminal moment for the power generation industry."
“The Clean Power Plan represents a commitment to continuing the transition from carbon-intensive generation to efficient, low-carbon generation,” said Thad Hill, president and CEO of Calpine, the largest independent power producer in the nation. “This flexible, market-based solution will reward the companies that invest and have invested smartly in cleaner generation. We applaud the EPA for its efforts throughout this collaborative process and look forward to working with the agency, states and other stakeholders as the rule is ultimately implemented.”
On Monday, Obama took aim at those who are resisting the plan. He dismissed their wide-ranging criticism and said the U.S. must act before it’s too late to ward off its most serious effects of climate change.
“Every time Americans made progress, it’s been despite these kinds of claims,” he said. “We only get one home. We only get one planet. There’s no plan B."
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/03/obama-unveils-climate-rules-texas-wide-implication/.