Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the U.S., filed suit last week against the Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to block implementation of the agency’s new carbon emissions rules. “This is clearly an illegal attempt by the Obama EPA to impose irrational and destructive cap-and-tax mandates, which Congress and the American people have consistently rejected,” said Gary M. Broadbent, media director for Murray. The company, based in Ohio, operates 13 mines and employs 7,200 people. Founder Robert Murray has alleged that the EPA is lying about the existence of global warming.
Meanwhile, Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson said that a spending bill being drafted for the EPA and the Department of the Interior could provide a way to hobble implementation of the rules. Rep. Ken Calvert (R) of California also indicated a willingness to look at possible legislation to block the rules.
New House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California also vowed to stop the EPA rules. “We have legislation moving here from appropriations and others that we do a lot of our different riders on,” McCarthy said. “That becomes some of the most effective areas to combat it.”
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that two-thirds of Americans support President Obama’s climate initiative, with more than half saying they’re willing to pay higher electric bills to help reduce global warming. The EPA’s new emissions rules brought support from 67% of respondents, with 29% in opposition. The poll also found that 61% of Americans believe climate change is happening, an increase from 54% five years ago.
More: Think Progress; MSNBC; The Wall Street Journal (6-13-14); The Wall Street Journal (6-18-14)
High Court Upholds EPA GHG Standard, with Some Limits
The Supreme Court yesterday largely approved the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, while criticizing what it called the agency’s overreaching.
“EPA is getting almost everything it wanted in this case,” Justice Antonin Scalia said. “It sought to regulate sources it said were responsible for 86% of all the greenhouse gases emitted from stationary sources nationwide. Under our holdings, EPA will be able to regulate sources responsible for 83% of those emissions.”
Scalia said the agency was free to do so as long as the sources in question “would need permits based on their emissions of more conventional pollutants.”
The court’s ruling was on the EPA’s regulations of new power plants. It did not directly affect the agency’s June 2 rulemaking, which concerns existing plants.
More: The New York Times; The Washington Post
FERC Approves LNG Export Plan for Louisiana
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week approved Sempra Energy Corp.’s plan for a liquefied natural gas export facility in Cameron Parish, La. The commission also approved necessary pipeline and compression facilities for the project. Cameron plans to export up to 14.95 million metric tons of gas per year. When completed, the plant would also be able to import LNG and regasify it for domestic use. The first phase of the project is planned for a 2017 completion, with the final two phases to be completed the following year.
The Cameron project is the second LNG export terminal approved by FERC, following the agency’s OK of the Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project in April 2012. Sabine Pass’s request to expand the project is among 12 LNG export proposals pending before the commission.
More: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Green Groups Call on NRC Commissioner to Resign
A group of environmental organizations called for the immediate resignation of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner William Magwood, saying he “fatally compromised” his position as a safety regulator when he applied for a new job as director-general with the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris.
A group of 34 environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, said Magwood should have recused himself from any NRC safety decisions when he decided to seek his new position.
The NEA identifies its mission as assisting member countries developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Magwood announced he would leave the NRC for the NEA in September.
More: Penn Energy