Lyman Welch

Today I spoke to the EPA to protect clean air at the only public hearing being held in the country on the Trump Administration’s proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan with a giveaway rule benefiting the coal power industry. Today I spoke to the EPA to protect clean air at the only public hearing being held in the country on the Trump Administration’s proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan with a giveaway rule benefiting the coal power industry. I oppose the Proposed Affordable Clean Energy Rule since it completely fails to set any accountability to address carbon pollution from coal fired power plants that fuel climate change. The Clean Air Act requires maximum emission reductions at major sources of air pollution like power plants, but this plan does not even require states to satisfy a minimal pollution reduction target in their implementation plans.

As drafted, the permit fails to require the plant’s current owner, Dynegy-Vistra, to bring its operations at Edwards into compliance with the Clean Air Act even after a Federal judge ruled that the plant has violated the Clean Air Act on thousands of occasions. As the Illinois EPA is well-aware, there is an ongoing lawsuit against Vistra-Dynegy, the owner of Edwards Power Station, regarding opacity and particulate matter violations at the facility. As an Illinois resident, I am shocked to learn that the Edwards Power Station has never had an up-to-date, finalized Title V operating permit as required by the Clean Air Act. It is deeply troubling that the IEPA has not only allowed multiple owners to operate this plant without a lawful operating permit but has done so while supporting multiple requests from owners to delay and rewrite Illinois’ Multi-Pollutant Standard all while this plant continuously emitted illegal amounts of opacity and PM.

Today the Trump Administration released a formal rule that would scrap the Clean Power Plan and fails to confront the serious threat of climate change caused by coal plants and carbon pollution. Here is what I wrote: Today the Trump Administration released a formal rule that would scrap the Clean Power Plan and fails to confront the serious threat of climate change caused by coal plants and carbon pollution. In Annex 9 of the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the United States and Canada committed to several key activities to address the climate change threat, including commitments to: Develop and improve regional-scale climate models. Link them to Great Lakes chemical, physical and biological models, in order to better understand and predict the impacts of climate change on Great Lakes water quality; Enhance monitoring of relevant climate and Great Lakes variables to validate model predictions and understand current climate changes and their impacts; Develop and improve tools to understand and predict the impacts, risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change; and Coordinate binational climate change science and share information that Great Lakes resource managers need to proactively address climate change impacts.

Public comments are being accepted until Aug. 14 at and EPA expects to request formal comments on the draft Action Plan in November 2018. I encourage everyone to support EPA’s Great Lakes restoration efforts and provide input during the public comment process. I encourage everyone to support EPA’s Great Lakes restoration efforts and provide input during the public comment process. Continued public engagement is essential for the program’s success, and I encourage EPA to provide a robust public comment period and public engagement strategy when the draft Action Plan 3 is released.