WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Monday announced one of the strongest actions ever taken by the U.S. government to fight climate change, a proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulation to cut carbon pollution from the nation's power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
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The regulation, which is subject to public comment and will be finalized a year from now, takes aim at the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, the nation's more than 600 coal-fired power plants.
If it withstands an expected onslaught of legal and legislative attacks, experts say, it could close hundreds of the plants and also lead, over the course of decades, to systemic changes in the U.S. electricity industry, including transformation in how power is generated and used.
Gina McCarthy, the EPA administrator, unveiled the proposal in a speech Monday.
"Today, climate change -- fueled by carbon pollution -- supercharges risks not just to our health, but to our communities, our economy and our way of life," McCarthy said.
The regulation is likely to be President Barack Obama's last chance to substantially shape domestic policy and would stand as a defining element of his legacy. The president, who failed to push a sweeping climate-change bill through Congress in his first term, is now acting on his own by using his executive authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act to issue the regulation.
Under the rule, states will be given a wide menu of policy options to achieve the pollution cuts. Rather than immediately shutting down coal plants, states would be allowed to reduce emissions by making changes across their electricity systems -- by installing new wind and solar-generation or energy-efficiency technology, and by starting or joining state and regional "cap and trade" programs, in which states agree to cap carbon pollution and buy and sell permits to pollute.
In her remarks, McCarthy repeatedly emphasized the plan's flexibility.
"That's what makes it ambitious but achievable. That's how we can keep our energy affordable and reliable. The glue that holds this plan together -- and the key to making it work -- is that each state's goal is tailored to its own circumstances, and states have the flexibility to reach their goal in whatever way works best for them," she said.
McCarthy also said that the proposal will help the economy, not hurt it.
"For over four decades, EPA has cut air pollution by 70 percent, and the economy has more than tripled. All while providing the power we need to keep America strong. Climate action doesn't dull America's competitive edge -- it sharpens it. It spurs ingenuity and innovation," she said.
The EPA estimates that the rule will cost $7.3 billion to $8.8 billion annually but will lead to economic benefits of $55 billion to $93 billion over the life of the rule, according to a person briefed on the plan.
Critics complain that the rule will drive up electricity costs, but the EPA forecasts that the rule will increase energy efficiency, leading to an average decrease of about 8 percent on electricity bills nationally when the program is fully implemented in 2030.
The EPA also forecasts that the rule will prevent 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks. There is no link between carbon pollution and asthma, but the EPA estimates that future coal plant closures will lead to a 25 percent reduction in traditional air pollutants such as soot, sulfur and nitrogen, which are linked to respiratory diseases.
McCarthy said the plan will create demand for designing and building energy-efficient technology at power plants, throughout the electric grid, and in homes and buildings.
"All this means more jobs, not less," she said. She added: "We'll need tens of thousands of American workers -- in construction, transmission and more -- to make cleaner power a reality."
Obama, in a conference call with public-health leaders, sought to head off critics who have argued the plan will kill jobs, drive up power bills and crush the economy in regions of the U.S.
"What we've seen every time is that these claims are debunked when you actually give workers and businesses the tools and the incentives they need to innovate," Obama said.
The EPA estimates that the 30 percent reduction in carbon pollution from power plants will be the equivalent of cancelling carbon pollution from two-thirds of all cars and trucks in America.
Although the rule will target coal-fired power plants, the EPA says it will allow states several years to retire existing coal plants, rather than forcing the immediate shutdown of such plants. The EPA estimates that under the rule, 30 percent of the U.S. electricity mix will still come from coal in 2030, down from about 40 percent today.
Relying on the 4-decades-old Clean Air Act, the EPA is giving customized targets to each state, then leaving it up to those states to develop plans to meet their targets. Some states will be allowed to emit more and others less, leading to an overall, nationwide reduction of 30 percent.
West Virginia, for example, must reduce the pollution it puts out per unit of power by 19 percent compared with 2012. Ohio's target is a 28 percent reduction, while Kentucky will have to find a way to make an 18 percent cut.
On the other extreme, New York has a targeted reduction of 44 percent. But New York already has joined with other Northeast states to curb carbon dioxide from power plants, meaning it's further along than many other states. The EPA said states like New York should not be punished for being proactive.
Although Obama initially wanted each state to submit its plan by June 2016, the draft proposal shows states could get extensions until 2017. If they join with other states, as New York has done, they could have until 2018, kicking full implementation of the rules well into the next president's administration.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced that it would use the regulatory decision against vulnerable Democrats, with automated calls hitting voice-mail boxes today in Virginia, Louisiana, Colorado and Alaska -- all states where Democratic senators are seeking re-election. The committee will also target Northern Virginia swing voters, Gulf Coast residents and independents in Colorado and Alaska, a committee spokesman said.
A few Democrats joined a chorus of Republicans in vowing to obstruct the rule legislatively. Rep. Nick Rahall, a vulnerable West Virginia Democrat, said he would not only back legislation but also join lawsuits. Republican House Speaker John Boehner simply called Obama's plan "nuts."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, "The excessive rule is an illegal use of executive power, and I will force a vote to repeal it."
Meanwhile, Obama and his top deputies urged their allies to defend the proposed rule against political attacks.
Former Vice President Al Gore praised the plan Monday.
He said the symbolic value was more important than the reduction of emissions that could follow. "It re-establishes the moral authority on the part of the United State of America in leading the world community," Gore said, addressing this year's graduates at Princeton University.
He said it helps set the tone for talks next year on global climate-change talks.
On the other hand, the European Union said the U.S. must do more to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions if it's to keep talks on limiting global warming on track.
"All countries including the United States must do even more than what this reduction trajectory indicates," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement from her office in Brussels on Monday.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will convene a summit in New York in September, when he expects nations to pledge action to cut pollutants causing global warming. Through a spokesman in New York, Ban welcomed Obama's "important initiative" as a "significant step toward reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions."
Environment and energy ministers will meet in Peru in December for more discussions and then in Paris in December 2015. Envoys to those talks intend to make an agreement next year that would apply to all nations instead of just the rich industrial ones.
Without action, scientists say, the planet will warm more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the industrial revolution, the steepest rise since the last ice age ended more than 10,000 years ago. Environmental groups agreed with the EU that the U.S. and other nations must do more to combat the risk to the climate.
"While a step forward, this rule simply doesn't go far enough to put us on the right path," Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "The science on climate change has become clearer and more dire, requiring more aggressive action from the president."
Information for this article was contributed by Coral Davenport of The New York Times; by Dina Cappiello, Josh Lederman, Juergen Baetz, Jonathan Fahey and staff members of The Associated Press; by Reed Landberg, Alex Morales, Ewa Krukowska, James Paton and Sangwon Yoon of Bloomberg News; and by Juliet Eilperin, Steven Mufson, Scott Clement, Peyton Craighill and Reid Wilson of The Washington Post.
A Section on 06/03/2014