Before 2:00 p.m.: Contact House Energy Committee Members on CPP

Share via

West Virginia Environmental Council Action Alert

Jan 22, 2015	View this Alert Online

Before 2:00 p.m.: Contact House Energy Committee Members on CPPBelow is an article by Emmett Pepper for WV-CAG’s newsletter on Friday. H.B. 2004 has appeared on the agenda of the House Energy Committee today at 2:00 p.m. Please call or e-mail the members right away and ask them to make one of the two changes Emmett suggests below. Contact info for House Energy Committee members can be found here. As you may know, the EPA has proposed regulating existing power plants to address climate change, called the Clean Power Plan (CPP). Under the CPP, states can come up with their own state implementation plan, by addressing climate change using four building blocks:

More energy efficient power plants,
More electricity from low-carbon-emitting natural gas,
More electricity from renewable anergy, and
More “demand-side” energy efficiency in homes, businesses and industries.

Last year, the West Virginia Legislature put restrictions intended to make it so that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had to address climate change under the CPP by making power plants more efficient, essentially only allowing one building block and ignoring the other three. This year, a bill has been introduced (SB 4 /HB 2004) to go even further, making it clear that West Virginia would be restricted to efficiency at power plants. The bill also requires the DEP to report to the Legislature on the feasibility of meeting the goals of the CPP, once the final EPA rules are released this summer. CAG’s Energy Efficient West Virginia program has no problem with having a feasibility report, but does not believe that the government should limit its options in complying with the law.

We need your help in addressing this issue!

Call or e-mail House Energy Committee members! Ask them to:

Amend SB 4 / HB 2004 to allow the state to count energy savings in West Virginia businesses and homes count toward meeting the EPA’s Clean Power Plan goals, either by a.) allowing more of the blocks or b.) removing restrictions on which building blocks can be implemented.
Call or write back to you and let you know what they plan to do about the issue.

Contact info for House Energy Committee members can be found here.

From the WVEC Action Alert E-mail List
Subscribe or Unsubscribe Online