Did the EPA Bulletproof the Clean Power Plan?

Gina McCarthy, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has learned two lessons from her long career in the regulatory martial arts:  adversity can be a source of strength, but a sure way to hurt yourself is to build strength without flexibility.

As the jiu-jitsu artist behind the Obama administration’s groundbreaking new rules to control carbon pollution from fossil-fuel power plants being unveiled Monday, McCarthy was determined to emerge from more than two years of legal and technical infighting with final rules that are both stronger and more flexible than the initial proposals.

The Clean Power Plan  she produced was stronger in two senses:  a little more ambitious in the emission reductions demanded, and better armored against the challenges that they will face in the courts, in Congress, and in the marketplace.

The rules, she and other Administration officials explained over the weekend, are projected by 2030 to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-produced electricity by 32 percent below the levels of 2005 – slightly deeper than the cut of 30 percent originally proposed.

That would prevent more than 800 million tons a year of greenhouse gases from a nation that emits about 6 billion tons a year.  The U.S. is the second-largest polluter in the world, only recently surpassed by China, and gives off twice as much carbon dioxide per capita as any other big economy.

The goal would be to generate 28 percent of electricity from renewables – significantly more than the 22 percent envisioned when the rule was first proposed, and enough to rival, but not exceed, generation from coal or natural gas.

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