EPA Hosts Listening Session about Clean Power Plan Repeal

By: Trimmel Gomes, Public News Service – MO

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Environmental Protection Agency will host a listening session surrounding the repeal of the Clean Power Plan on Wednesday in Kansas City.

The plan – created under the Obama administration – requires states to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas they create from power plants.

Supporters and opponents of the proposed repeal will have their chance to testify at the 10-hour session in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Complex. Environmental concerns are a driving force for opponents of the repeal.

Jennifer Lowry, chief of toxicology and environmental health at Children’s Mercy Hospital, says a repeal could negatively impact future generations.

“Our children and those who are more uniquely vulnerable to changes in the environment are really going to bear the burden of the dirty air now and the unfortunate health effects that occur with climate change,” she laments.

The plan was finalized in 2015 and would continue to move away from coal-generated power and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power if kept.

Supporters of repeal claim clean power is not as reliable as coal-generated energy.

However, Joe Spease, CEO of WindSoHy, a business focused on wind, solar, hydrogen and energy storage technologies, says he’s seen first-hand how the marketplace has changed for clean energy and how it is driving job and economic growth.

“The best thing that can happen to consumers is for the greater development of wind and solar power projects and energy-storage projects to reduce the amount of fossil fuel power that is used in the economy,” he explains.

Spease points to studies showing a repeal would deny Americans the opportunity to create 560,000 additional jobs and take away some $52 billion in economic value. He adds the country should be building toward a better economic future instead of dwelling on the past.

“Now you’re looking at the creation of millions of jobs throughout the country related to the need for ongoing wind-turbine parts: the blades, the nacelles, the towers,” he says.

Scott Pruitt, the man President Donald Trump appointed last year to head the EPA, has made it a point to repeal the Clean Power Plan, saying it imposed unnecessary burdens on energy producers.

The listening session in Kansas City will run from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.