Senator Menendez’s Letter Defending EPA/Clean Air Act Authority

There is a strong possibility that any climate legislation, now put off until next spring for a possible vote, will take out the EPA’s clean air act authority.  It is very very important that this authority remain in the legislation.  If the legislation isn’t strong enough to fight climate change adequately (a strong probability, unless a miracle occurs) then the EPA needs to retain its authority to regulate whatever it needs to, if it needs to.

This letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asks that final clean energy and climate legislation protect EPA Clean Air Act authority to require the clean up of old, dirty coal plants.  Building broad support for this letter is our chance to show Senator Reid that our leaders are serious about standing up to polluting industries and cleaning up greenhouse gas pollution from old, dirty coal.  This letter currently has (only) nine signers: Robert Menendez (D-NJ); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI); Jack Reed (D-RI); Christopher Dodd (D-CT); Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ); Benjamin Cardin (D-MD); and Bernie Sanders (D-VT).  We want at least twenty!!

Menendez Letter: http://action.sierraclub.org/menendez_letter (pdf)   You can read the letter  below too.

PLEASE — Call your senator and ask them to sign on to this letter.  Find them here: Senator List of Contact Info

Here is the Menendez letter in full:

Date, 2009

Dear Majority Leader Harry Reid:

We strongly embrace the promise of clean energy to make America more energy independent,
create millions of new green jobs, and stave off the worst effects of global warming. In order to
accomplish all of these goals, we need to begin to de-carbonize our utility sector and make the
transition to clean energy. We were very pleased to see that the introduced version of the Clean
Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733), sponsored by Senators John Kerry and Barbara
Boxer, protects the Clean Air Act’s requirements that existing coal-fired power plants, the
nation’s biggest global warming polluters, meet up-to-date technology standards for carbon
dioxide. We strongly urge you to ensure that these Clean Air Act protections remain in the final
energy and climate bill that passes the Senate.

America’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants, more than three-fourths of which were built
prior to 1980, are responsible for a disproportionate amount of the country’s air pollution,
including toxic mercury, soot and smog-forming pollutants, and carbon dioxide. Indeed, coalfired
power plants emit one-third of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions.

America cannot achieve the reductions in global warming pollution that science indicates are
needed to protect future generations and the planet from catastrophic and irreversible global
warming if we do not begin to de-carbonize the utility sector today and start the march to clean
energy. This transition will help rebuild our manufacturing base by creating jobs in clean energy
technology, increase our energy security, and reduce global warming pollution.

Yet this necessary transition to clean energy could well be short-circuited if old and inefficient
power plants continue to dominate America’s electricity market. This would crowd out any
sizable move to wind and solar power and other clean energy sources, since the U.S. Department
of Energy projects that electricity demand will be relatively flat over the next 20 years (an annual
average growth rate of less than 1 percent).

Regrettably, this crowding-out scenario appears all too plausible if, contrary to the Clean Air Act,
a massive loophole is created for existing coal plants, such that they never have to meet
performance standards for their carbon pollution. In the absence of such performance standards,
utilities may very well continue to operate—or even expand—existing plants in the early years of
the program rather than invest in cleaner sources of energy. This is in large part due to three key
features of many legislative proposals during the program’s early years: the economy-wide cap
on global warming pollution tightens slowly, allowances to pollute are largely distributed at no
cost to the polluter, and carbon offsets can be liberally used in the place of actual reductions from
covered sources. Further, in the medium term—as the economic realities set in of an emissions
cap that is increasingly tightening and allowances to pollute that are increasingly auctioned rather
than given away—those utilities that have delayed transitioning to cleaner sources of energy may
confront the need to abruptly shutter aging coal plants that continue to provide the bulk of
America’s electricity. In the face of potential brownouts or blackouts, tremendous political
pressure would be brought to bear to weaken the cap, a result that would compromise our
economic, national security, and environmental goals.

In order to prevent such a scenario from coming to pass, the cap on emissions must be paired with
clean energy standards and Clean Air Act or equivalent performance standards for power plants
that ensure that America moves to clean technology at a reasonable pace and can achieve the
needed longer term cuts in pollution.

Such an approach—pairing a cap on emissions with performance standards for power plants—is
the path Congress took in 1990 when it enacted the Acid Rain Program, the nation’s first capand-
trade program. At that time, Congress debated eliminating the Clean Air Act’s requirements
that power plants meet source-specific standards, but Congress instead recognized that those
standards are essential to drive technology improvements.

As strong supporters of clean energy, we urge you to ensure that energy and climate legislation
builds on the existing Clean Air Act and does not create loopholes for old, inefficient, and
polluting coal-fired power plants. Consistent with the approach taken in the introduced version of
the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the bill should require coal-fired power plants—
old and new alike—to meet up-to-date performance standards for carbon dioxide that will
complement an overall cap on emissions and move America to clean energy.

Sincerely,

(Senator Menendez and signers)

These senators should be on this letter!:

State    Party    Last name    First name    Signed Menendez Letter?
CA    D    Boxer    Barbara    
CA    D    Feinstein    Dianne    
CO    D    Bennet    Michael    
CO    D    Udall    Mark    
CT    D    Dodd    Christopher                                 X
CT    ID    Lieberman    Joseph    
DE    D    Kaufman    Ted    
FL    D    Nelson    Bill    
HI    D    Akaka    Daniel    
HI    D    Inouye    Daniel    
IA    D    Harkin    Tom    
IL    D    Burris    Roland    
IL    D    Durbin    Richard    
MA    D    Kerry    John    
MA    D    Kirk    Paul    
MD    D    Cardin    Ben                                           X
MD    D    Mikulski    Barbara    
ME    R    Collins    Susan    
ME    R    Snowe    Olympia    
MN    D    Franken    Al    
MN    D    Klobuchar    Amy    
MT    D    Tester    John    
NH    D    Shaheen    Jeanne    
NJ    D    Lautenberg    Frank                               X
NJ    D    Menendez    Bob                                      X
NM    D    Udall    Tom    
NY    D    Gillibrand    Kirsten                              X
NY    D    Schumer    Charles    
OR    D    Merkley    Jeff                                          X
OR    D    Wyden    Ron    
PA    D    Casey    Bob    
RI    D    Reed    Jack                                                 X
RI    D    Whitehouse    Sheldon                           X
VT    D    Leahy    Patrick    
VT    I    Sanders    Bernard                                    X
WA    D    Cantwell    Maria    
WA    D    Murray    Patty    
WI    D    Feingold    Russell