Frank Pallone: “The Newhouse amendment seeks to legislatively adjust an element of the EPA's clean power plan, but the amendment does…”

“The Newhouse amendment seeks to legislatively adjust an element of the EPA's clean power plan, but the amendment does nothing to fix the problems in the rest of the bill, which was actually designed to cripple the EPA's ability to curb emissions from power plants and allows Governors to thumb their noses at the Clean Air Act. The Newhouse amendment would make more sense if it were a comment submitted to the EPA on the proposed rule, rather than being attached to legislation that would gut the clean power plan altogether. In fact, the EPA is actively considering this issue already. The proposed clean power plan would have allowed new and incremental hydropower to count towards compliance with the rule, but it did not consider existing hydropower in either goal setting or for compliance. EPA received many comments on including hydropower in setting the clean power plan's goals and treating hydropower as an eligible measure to lower CO<INF>2</INF> emissions. EPA has engaged in outreach to numerous stakeholders about hydropower, renewable energy, and other low- and zero-emitting sources of power to better understand issues raised in their comments; and it is giving careful consideration to all comments received. There are varying views on this topic, and it should be left, in my opinion, to the rulemaking process to sort out the best approach.…”