As reported recently, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman added Colorado to the growing number of states ready to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented Clean Power Plan.
Coffman’s announcement voiced her concern over the rule’s impact on ratepayers and our state’s economy:
If you make a change like the one we will see if this rule is implemented, I think it has the potential to cost jobs. I think it will impact the rates that we pay for our electricity. And I think it impacts the rights of our state government to make these decisions about how electricity is delivered.”
The state’s top lawyer, in stating her legal reason for challenging the EPA rule, called the Clean Power Plan “an unprecedented attempt to expand the federal government’s regulatory control over the states’ energy economy” and said that the EPA “appears unwilling to accept limits set by Congress in the Clean Air Act.”
Coffman’s decision will also help add some clarity about the legal future of the Clean Power Plan and if it might be tossed by the courts before a final plan is submitted to the feds and set in motion by the state. Coffman’s quest makes perfect sense and may ultimately be one of the most important consumer protections available for Colorado’s diverse ratepayers.
The sweeping changes contemplated in the plan would impact every type of consumer—residential, small business, agricultural and industrial—in every community in Colorado. That includes consumers served by public utilities, municipal providers and rural cooperatives. Why start down a costly—and possibly irreversible path—if the courts stop the EPA? Federal courts have already taken that step on other EPA mandates. The Clean Power Plan may face a similar fate.
Despite the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment stating that it is pouring over the voluminous rule with little insight yet gained about how it will impact the state, Governor Hickenlooper is staying on course and says he’s “confident” that Colorado will meet—and possibly exceed—the EPA’s requirements.
That’s where this coalition will remain vigilant as state air regulators craft the plan and embark on what we hope will be an open and inclusive statewide stakeholder process. We still believe that any plan must be reviewed by the Public Utilities Commission—as the PUC is clearly more experienced measuring the impacts to consumers and reliability.
Most importantly, the General Assembly must be able to review and vote on any plan to the EPA. This step is critical. It vests the statewide public institution that is closest to the people and most answerable to them with the power to debate and decide how Colorado might comply with the EPA rule.
A recent Denver Post editorial, harkening back to prior electricity-related policy decisions, called for making this process “as open and transparent as possible” to address “an immensely complex undertaking without precedent in terms of resource planning on a statewide basis.” We agree.
The coalition hopes AG Coffman is successful in her effort on the Clean Power Plan to obtain legal clarity before Colorado embarks on an expensive and possibly irreversible journey . But we will remain vigilant, and we strongly encourage consumers do the same. The EPA rules will be unprecedented in their impact and reach across Colorado—and we should likewise strive to have input to match.