Consumer Energy Alliance President, David Holt released this statement following the publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Rule 111(d): ‘Clean Power Plan’ in the Federal Register:
“Consumer Energy Alliance was disappointed that the Administration and EPA failed to give credence to the ‘Clean Power Plan’s’ impact on energy consumers, grid reliability, and manufacturers when it released the final version of the rule in August. CEA remains disappointed today with the publication of the rule.
“Study after study confirms that the rule will raise electricity prices for all American consumers, threaten grid reliability and security, and take an amount of electricity equal to the total electricity demand of New England offline with no plan to replace the lost production. All of this will be done within an extremely tight timeline and in an unprecedented fashion.
“Not only will consumers shoulder the cost of this rule’s new mandates on their monthly utility bills, but they will in effect have to pay twice due to the large amounts of electricitythat will be prematurely shutdown prior to the expiration of its useful life.
“As always, CEA remains committed to fighting for affordable, reliable electricity supplies. We will work directly with state officials and concerned communities to help educate consumers about the negative impacts of the rule. CEA will also work with state policy officials to help push back on the rule and develop implementation strategies for these regulations that will minimize the damage that they could potentially inflict on citizens personal finances and the economy. But, make no mistake, this rule will have a significant and negative impact on consumers and economies across the country. The best course of action is to simply rescind this rule.”
The rule, as released, cracks down on carbon dioxide emissions from power generation plants under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.
