Click here to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a hearing with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan.
HEARING HIGHLIGHTS:
ON THE EPA FORCING THE CLOSURE OF BASELOAD POWER PLANTS:
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO: “I just get so frustrated when I see it. Let's see, right now our power mix is 60% fossil fuel. 16% coal. 43% natural gas. 18% nuclear. 20% renewable. The plan that you've put out, the Clean Power Plan that will basically make every coal plant extinct because nobody's going to be able to afford to do that on an aging coal plant, so those will be gone in the 2030s. And then nobody's going to build a new [gas-fired] one unless they only run it under 40% because they're not going to be able to meet the demand.”
KEY EXCHANGE ON THE LACK OF A PLAN TO REPLACE RELIABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION AFTER THE EPA’S RULES TAKE EFFECT:
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:
“Do you know a U.S. power plant right now that meets the 90% CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, storage) requirement that you put into that bill [rule]? Where is that plant?”
EPA ADMINISTRATOR REGAN:
“I think I want to sort of push back on the notion that this rule is going after coal. I think when we talk to these utility CEOs, they provided to us their plans, some of these coal plants were already going to sense that because they're transitioning to natural gas. Some of these coal plants we do believe will be able to take advantage of the CCS technology.”
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:
“Is anybody doing that now? The answer is no.”
KEY EXCHANGE ON WARNINGS, LESSONS FROM THE MOUNTAIN VALLEY PIPELINE SAGA:
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:
“Here's another problem. We had a pipeline in West Virginia, natural gas pipeline that goes down toward North Carolina, the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We all know what we went through to get the completion of that. We had to have a presidential signature to get that completed after it had been in and out of the courts for years. It's like triple the cost that it originally was. How in the world can you say that we're going to do CCS? We're going to build pipelines that are going to carry carbon. That's not going to happen.”
EPA ADMINISTRATOR REGAN:
“The country is already doing it. And the country is doing it for other sectors of the economy.”
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:
“I would love for you to give me an interstate pipeline that's been recently built that carries carbon and then I'll be quiet about it.”
EPA ADMINISTRATOR REGAN:
“Well, there's a pipeline currently being built through North Dakota to Iowa…”
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:
“So when was it permitted?”
EPA ADMINISTRATOR REGAN:
“I'd have to get you those details.”
ON EPA OVERRIDING STATES’ AUTHORITY THROUGH HARMFUL “GOOD NEIGHBOR” AIR RULE:
RANKING MEMBER CAPITO: “[States] are not getting the option to work through it. You're just coming in and telling them the federal plan…but you’ve [EPA] rejected all the state plans.”
Click HERE to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions.
Click HERE to watch Ranking Member Capito’s opening statement.
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