The Clean Power Plan: Issues to Watch

As soon as next week, the Obama Administration is expected to release the final version of its long-awaited Clean Power Plan, an ambitious regulatory package under the Clean Air Act's provisions that will ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the largest single source of U.S. emissions. The latest rumor in rumor- and sun-drenched Washington is that the rule will come on Monday. It's as certain as the sun rising in the east that the energy industry and their congressional allies on Capitol Hill will spare no adjectives in their opposition to the plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is already on record calling on the states to refuse to participate in the planning process for developing state implementation plans, as called for in the package. And it's likely there'll be a court challenge, as well. By now, it's becoming a familiar playbook for the President's opponents. But once the volume and vitriol subsides just a bit, there'll be some important work to do analyzing the final version of the Clean Power Plan. In a new issue alert out this morning, a distinguished group of 11 Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholars, all law professors who are experts in a variety of energy and environmental topics, identify key issues likely to determine the success of the plan. As the paper's coordinating editor, Alice Kaswan said in releasing The Clean Power Plan: Issues to Watch, "With the Clean Power Plan, the Obama Administration is finally confronting emissions from our existing energy infrastructure. If it sticks to its guns, it can put the United States on a course to meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, thus enabling our transition to a cleaner energy future and helping the U.S. assert more compelling international leadership on climate change. If it crumbles under political pressure, this chance won't come again for this President, and we will only prolong the emissions that are progressively increasing our collective risk. The success of the plan in reducing emissions and facilitating a clean energy transition is not a foregone conclusion; EPA's final policy choices will be critical."