Frank Pallone: “Last month, the Energy and Power Subcommittee held a hearing that identified numerous flaws in the SENSE Act, and this…”

“Last month, the Energy and Power Subcommittee held a hearing that identified numerous flaws in the SENSE Act, and this amendment is designed to correct two of them. If the SENSE Act were to become law, waste coal facilities would be able to emit more than their fair share of pollution under the Cross- State Air Pollution Rule, known as CSAPR. Specifically, section 2(b) of the SENSE Act would reserve emission credits for waste coal plants, thereby prohibiting them from being traded under the CSAPR trading system. According to Janet McCabe, the Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at EPA, this would remove the economic incentives to reduce emissions and ultimately increase the cost of compliance. Section 2(b) would also interfere with the State's right to determine how to best comply with the rule, instead putting those decisions in the hands of the EPA Administrator. Not only are these changes harmful, but they are also unnecessary because the State that wishes to give a break to waste coal units can already do so under the rule. So this bill, as written, would take longstanding State authority, transfer it to the Federal Government, and then use that authority to pick winners and losers; and it does all of this while increasing the cost of compliance.…”