On June 25 the Department of Environmental Protection provided comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule setting standards for greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants.

Among the comments made by DEP were--

-- EPA admits that there are no environmental benefits from this proposed rulemaking;

-- This is a prime example of the inappropriate practice of federal energy policy being driven by environmental regulation. Such a major energy policy as embodied in this proposed Rule should be left to Congress, not the federal EPA acting preemptively;

-- The proposed rule picks winners and losers and limits the nation’s future potential energy sources; and

-- DEP asks EPA devise a transparent methodology with state and stakeholder input to perform a full costs-benefits analysis for the proposed rule.

A copy of the letter is available online.

7/2/2012