By Ted Caddell
There’s no mistaking where Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) stands on global warming and the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans for addressing it.
In February, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to underscore his skepticism of climate science. Last week, he kicked off a committee hearing by displaying a map identifying the 32 states he said are opposing EPA’s proposed carbon emission rule, which he called a “selfish power grab.”
“The proposal undermines the longstanding concept of cooperative federalism and the Clean Air Act, where the federal government is meant to work in partnership with the states to achieve the underlying goals,” Inhofe said. “Instead, the rule forces states to redesign the way they generate, manage and use electricity in a manner that satisfies President Obama’s extreme climate agenda.”
In a two-hour hearing, the committee heard from officials from Wyoming, Wisconsin and Indiana, who said the rule would harm their states’ economies, and representatives from California and New York, who insisted it is necessary and achievable.
“You can significantly reduce these emissions in a way that grows your economy,” said Michael J. Myers, chair of the litigation section of New York’s Environmental Protection Bureau. “The time is now for state leadership. So take the wheel.”
Todd Parfitt, director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said EPA’s “timelines are problematic if not unrealistic.” A major problem for his state and others in the Midwest, he said, is that EPA would give credit for wind power to consuming states rather than producers. He said that 85% of wind energy generated in Wyoming is consumed outside the state.
Under the Clean Power Plan, states will first be asked to come up with their own ways to implement the emissions reductions rules, but the federal government would step in and impose rules if they don’t.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said after the hearing that Inhofe’s map “radically overstates state opposition” by including any state where a state official or agency has raised concerns.
Indiana is among the 12 states that are challenging EPA’s authority to issue and enforce the carbon rule. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for next month before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.