Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday released the following statement on President Trump’s executive order that starts the process for stopping the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan:
“Today, the Trump administration took a good first step toward stopping this Washington regulation that would drive up the cost of energy and discourage job growth. My principal objection to the Obama administration’s so-called Clean Power Plan is that it ignores nuclear power – 60 percent of our country’s clean power. Instead, it encourages wind and solar power, which produce very little electricity. Prioritizing an unreliable source of electricity such as wind makes little sense and is the energy equivalent of going to war in sailboats when the nuclear Navy is available. The best path to a clean energy future is to put nuclear, our country’s most important source of clean power, on a level playing field.”
In August of 2015, the EPA announced its final regulation, known as the Clean Power Plan, to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants by 32 percent nationwide by 2030. Over half of the States, electrical utilities, mining companies, and trade organizations challenged the legality of the regulation. And in February of 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked implementation of the Clean Power Plan until legal challenges were resolved.
Last year, Sen. Alexander, who is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, joined 33 other senators and 171 congressman in filing an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. In 2015, Sen. Alexander joined 49 senators in cosponsoring a resolution to disapprove of the Clean Power Plan – that resolution passed the Senate and the House of Representatives, but was vetoed by President Obama. Last Congress, Sen. Alexander also cosponsored the Affordable Reliable Electricity Now Act, which would have delayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan until legal challenges were resolved.