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EPA Will Not Issue Final Model Rules For Implementing Clean Power Climate Plan

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Janet McCabe Monday announced her agency would not finalize the model rules intended to help states implement the Clean Power Climate Plan, but will rather make them available as working drafts.

The Clean Power Plan is on hold while a lawsuit against the Plan is being heard in federal court. Trump Administration EPA-designate Scott Pruitt was leading the legal challenge to the rule as Attorney General of Oklahoma.

In a blog post, McCabe said, “EPA proposed the Model Rules in August 2015 when we issued the final CPP. The proposed Model Rules highlighted straightforward pathways to adopting a trading system, making it easy for states and power plants to use emissions trading to reduce carbon pollution.

“Today, we are withdrawing the draft Model Rules and accompanying draft documents from interagency review and are making working drafts of them available to the public.

“While these drafts are not final and we are not required to release them at this time, making them available now allows us to share our work to date and to respond to the states that have requested information prior to the end of the Administration.

“In a letter issued today, we [EPA] have notified those 14 states about the information we are making available.

“The documents we [EPA] are posting today are still working drafts. They are not final documents, they are not signed by the Administrator and they will not be published in the Federal Register.

“EPA’s docket will remain open, with the potential for completing the agency’s work on these materials and finalizing them at a later date.

-- Draft Model Trading Rules for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Electric Utility Generating Units Constructed on or Before January 8, 2014

-- Draft EM&V Guidance for Demand-Side Energy Efficiency

-- Draft Clean Power Plan Tracking Systems White Paper

-- Draft Technical Support Document: Leakage Requirement for State Plans Using Mass-based Emission Budget Trading Programs

For more information on Pennsylvania’s actions related to the EPA Clean Power Rule, visit DEP’s Climate Change webpage.

NewsClips:

Energy Benchmarking Comes To Pittsburgh

Bloomberg: States Are Nuclear Industry’s Best Hope (TMI, Exelon)

Penn State Team Tests Low-Carbon Hybrid Microgrid For Use Across The State

Penn State Climate Prof Can Pursue Defamation Claims Against Critics

Op-Ed: Why PA Is Moving Forward To Reduce Methane Pollution, EDF