CEI Applauds Repeal of So-Called Clean Power Plan

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebell responded to the announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency would repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama administration rule that has been challenged in court for being an unlawful change to the nation’s coal industry.

“CEI applauds EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s move to repeal the so-called Clean Power Plan. This is a huge step toward dismantling the Obama Administration’s war on affordable energy.  Repealing the CPP will spur new investment and create new jobs in energy-intensive manufacturing and resource industries. States will now not be forced to close coal-fired power plants or replace them with more expensive and less reliable types of energy.

“While states like California and New York can continue down their chosen path of higher energy prices for consumers, repealing the “Clean Power” Plan means that other states will not have to close down coal-fired power plants and thereby destroy jobs and impoverish consumers with higher electric rates.

“Besides the huge economic benefits from repealing the rule, we congratulate the Trump Administration for restoring legality to the regulatory process. The document released today notes that the rule must be repealed simply because it is illegal. That’s why the Supreme Court stayed implementation of the rule in February, 2016, on the grounds that it was likely to be overturned by the court. Especially welcome is the replacement of the legally flawed cost-benefit analysis of the rule with a new analysis.”