|
North Carolina asks for extension of public comment period on carbon rules
Story Date: 8/18/2014
| |
Source: NCDENR, 8/14/14
North Carolina has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to extend the public comment period by 90 days on its proposed rule for regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources asked for the extension because additional time is needed to understand the potential impacts of the rule on the environment and the economy, John Skvarla, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources said in a letter sent this week to the EPA.
“Our review to date has revealed that the rule will have a significant impact on electric power providers and rate payers,” Skvarla’s letter states. “We believe the proposal creates a regulatory scheme that affects all aspects of how electricity is generated, dispatched, and used by businesses and consumers while creating a new EPA oversight of every state and local authority involved in these complex issues. EPA’s current comment period deadline of October 16, 2014, simply does not provide sufficient time to understand this far-reaching and complex proposal.”
DENR also has concerns about the legality of the proposed rule, he said, and extending the comment period would provide the state more time to understand and verify the assumptions and calculations that the EPA used to establish carbon reduction goals for North Carolina.
“[A]n extension of 90 days would allow stakeholders and interested parties to develop comments that guide EPA’s efforts to craft a rule that is legally defensible and with lower risks and costs,” Skvarla said in the letter. “Affordable and reliable electricity, along with clean air, are essential to the economic well-being of our state and the quality of life of our citizens.”
In previous comments submitted at an EPA public hearing on the rule, DENR expressed concerns about the potential for the rule to punish North Carolina for making early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA rule proposes using 2012 as the baseline date assessing greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The proposed rule does not provide any credit for North Carolina having made emissions reductions before that date and would require more costly reductions moving forward. In addition, states with the highest coal usage have the smallest greenhouse gas reduction requirements under the proposal.
The complete text of Skvarla’s letter and other related information can be viewed at this page on the DAQ website: http://www.ncair.org/rules/EGUs/.
|
|
|
|
