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Dakota Software's Blog for EHS and Sustainability Professionals

EPA finishes CPP cap-and-trade rules despite stay of enforcement

November 29th, 2016 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

EPA finishes CPP cap-and-trade rules despite stay of enforcement

The Clean Power Plan is in the midst of a lengthy court battle over the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to enforce the regulations contained in its proposed language. That legal action isn't likely to resolve any time soon. The most recent action by the Supreme Court put a stay on the CPP's enforcement, pending a ruling by a lower court about its legality. However, the federal environmental regulator decided to move forward on developing components of the CPP that would be integral to its operation should it become law. That action has drawn the attention of a number of states and organizations opposed to the plan, although the issue is complicated by a number of states moving forward to realize CPP compliance despite the legal stay holding back enforcement.

Cap-and-trade rules now ready if needed
Political news site The Hill reported the White House Office of Management and Budget received proposed cap-and-trade rules from the EPA in early November. The cap-and-trade concept is an optional component of the larger CPP, one that allows states to more easily meet requirements related to the plan's carbon reductions. Specifically, the cap-and-trade program forces states with coal power plants and similar pollution-generating facilities to make cuts, but it also enables power generators to trade reduction credits with producers of cleaner sources of energy, such as solar power and wind farms.

"Many states have asked EPA to move forward with our outreach and to continue providing support and developing tools related to the Clean Power Plan," the EPA said in a statement, according to The Hill. "We are developing these tools in a way that is consistent with the Supreme Court's stay of the Clean Power Plan."

The federal environmental compliance agency said the court ruling didn't address concerns about developing components of the CPP during the stay of enforcement. The EPA has a reasonable position to take in this instance: If the lower court ends up ruling in favor of the plan and it passes into law, it could be disastrous for elements of it to remain unfinished. That's an especially important consideration with the lack of a definitive date for resolving the case and the potential for regulatory deadlines to shift or remain the same should it come into effect.

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