Peace Garden News

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, has joined EPW Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and other Republican committee members in submitting a comment letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin. The letter voices support for the EPA’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan 2.0, a policy from the Biden administration.

In their correspondence, the senators stated that the Biden-era standards “misinterpreted the limited authority that Congress granted…in an attempt to expand the Agency’s authority” without a congressional mandate to do so. They raised concerns about how these rules could affect grid reliability and impose requirements for technologies they consider unproven and costly. The letter also references what they see as a more accurate interpretation of Clean Air Act requirements under the Trump administration.

“Our nation currently needs more reliable and affordable electricity to power our economy, maintain our economic competitiveness, and win the Artificial Intelligence race,” according to the letter. “The current regulations – that your proposal will repeal – put us at risk by exacerbating electric reliability threats and spiking energy costs borne by American families and businesses.”

The senators added, “We appreciate the Agency taking seriously its legal responsibility to carefully consider the scope of its authority under Section 111 of the CAA,” continuing, “Under previous administrations, the EPA attempted to sidestep the statutorily required determination of significant contribution prior to regulating greenhouse gases (GHG) from stationary source categories. EPA also attempted to use Section 111 to claim a broad grant of authority for the Agency to require emission reduction systems for GHGs from the power sector that were not adequately demonstrated and unachievable. Relying on exceptionally novel interpretations of Section 111 of the CAA, the EPA issued rules seeking to transform the power sector contrary to the Supreme Court’s holding in West Virginia v. EPA.”

Senator Cramer has consistently opposed such regulations. In August 2023, he called on EPA officials in President Biden’s administration to withdraw their proposal from consideration. He later joined Administrator Zeldin in announcing plans for repealing both Clean Power Plan 2.0 and parts of an earlier plan introduced during President Obama’s tenure.

The full text of their letter is available online.