McGuireWoods partner Allison Wood testified before the Kentucky General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy on July 18, 2024, about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rule on greenhouse gas standards and guidelines for coal-fired power plants.
Wood is nationally recognized as a leader in the field of environmental law, having guided clients through complex and precedent-setting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal appellate courts. She recently co-led a McGuireWoods team that secured an emergency stay from the Supreme Court on behalf of clients challenging the EPA’s rule known as the Good Neighbor Plan, a federal program that seeks to regulate ozone-forming emissions from power plants and other industrial sources in 23 states.
The Kentucky legislative panel invited Wood to testify about the EPA’s final 2024 Greenhouse Gas Rule, along with a state Department for Environmental Protection official and an attorney from Kentucky’s Office of the Attorney General. Wood told the committee that the EPA rule “is being litigated vigorously by not just states, but also many industry parties.” The rule is being challenged by 27 states, including Kentucky, she noted.Wood presented the panel with an overview of the legal arguments against the Greenhouse Gas Rule and the impact new EPA emissions standards would have on power generation. She said the new rule conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court’s directive in West Virginia v. EPA that EPA cannot mandate “generation shifting” under the Clean Air Act because the rule effectively forces the retirement of almost all coal-fired plants to 2032 and severely curtails the use of new gas-fired generation. She also said the rule’s emissions limits violate the Clean Air Act because they are not “adequately demonstrated” and/or “achievable,” as the Clean Air Act requires, because they rely on the use of uncertain and untested technology and because the necessary infrastructure to implement the standards does not exist.Video of the hearing is available on the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission’s YouTube channel.
Original source can be found here.