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We Need A Legislative Path To Power Plant Emissions Cuts
By Jeffrey Holmstead and Samuel Thernstrom ( May 24 , 2024 , 5:23 PM EDT )
Electricity is increasingly central to Americans — powering not only our homes and businesses , but also our cars , our digital devices and countless other essential aspects of modern life . The grid that delivers electricity to virtually every household is one of the greatest engineering accomplishments in history .
It is also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions , so any effort to decarbonize the economy must rest upon a foundation of clean power . Yet five successive presidential administrations have failed to meet the challenge of regulating power plant emissions .
The Biden administration is the latest to prefer implausible promises to practical plans . And the U . S . Environmental Protection Agency ' s new regulation targeting carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants , finalized on April 25 , is almost certain to meet the same fate as its predecessors : rejection in court or political retreat , whichever comes first .
Jeffrey Holmstead
If that ' s the case , the rule ' s only real effect will have been to provide Congress and the administration with an excuse for legislative inaction . Why do they need the excuse when climate change is such a priority ? Because legislation requires compromise — a dirty word on Capitol Hill these days — and both sides have convinced themselves that there is no mutually acceptable path .
This delusion derives from a historical truth : When energy technologies are immature and regulations are rigid , then emissions reductions are a zero-sum struggle between cost and environmental performance . Forcing rapid adoption of high-cost energy sources is inevitably expensive .
Those are the circumstances that defined the decarbonization debate — choose clean or cheap — when it began in the 1990s . But since the early 2000s , the facts have changed faster than perceptions .
The potential cost of reducing carbon emissions is falling significantly because of developments in technology ; what remains uncertain is the regulatory framework . Well-designed legislation could shape an energy transition that preserves the affordability , reliability and security of electric power , while substantially decarbonizing the sector by midcentury .
Without such legislation , we will stumble and lurch from one regulation to the next court decision — a game of regulatory ping pong that can benefit only litigators and activists , not our economy and environment .
Samuel Thernstrom