Of the four public hearings scheduled this week on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan—aka, carbon pollution standards proposed under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act—all but one are scheduled for states (and the District of Columbia) bordering the East Coast. A preview of the Denver hearing suggests that substantive comments from the power sector are being submitted directly to the agency.
Though originally scheduled just for Tuesday, July 29, the number of individuals requesting time to speak in Denver at the EPA’s Region 8 offices forced a second day of hearings plus the scheduling of concurrent hearings for two rosters of speakers in two different rooms.
As I drove up to the Denver area on the weekend prior to the hearings, I happened to hear a radio announcement sponsored by Sierra Club and Snowriders International encouraging listeners to attend and show their support for the proposed standards. According to their press release, “The radio ad will run nearly 260 times over the course of seven days in the Denver media market.”
Apparently, the word got out. Of the 222 Tuesday speakers listed on the EPA District 8 website by mid-afternoon July 28, 22 were identified as affiliated with Sierra Club; 21 of 228 Wednesday speakers were affiliated with Sierra Club.
The Front Range of Colorado experienced a devastating rain and flooding event last fall—preceded by a series of destructive wildfires—that are still fresh in the minds of everyone in this state, so many in Colorado (which is also in the midst of an oil and gas fracking boom) are watching climate change politics and policy closely.
Though many speakers did not list an affiliation, the majority of those who did were from various sorts of environmental groups. Healthcare and religious groups were also represented.
For Tuesday’s roster, only about five speakers were identifiably affiliated with a power generator, utility association, or public utility commission. On Wednesday’s list the number was 10. Interestingly, between early morning and mid-afternoon, the list was updated and no longer included a speaker from Xcel Energy, and speaking times had been removed.
Why the paucity of generating companies in attendance, given that the Denver hearing was the only one scheduled in the West? Odds are that individual generators are submitting more careful comments in writing directly to the EPA (due by Oct. 16) and working with state agencies to figure out a way forward.
Even groups that one might consider the antithesis of environmental groups represented less than a handful of speakers listed for Tuesday; these included the Wyoming Mining Association and the Powder River Basin Resource Council. On Wednesday, similar groups and the United Mine Workers of America accounted for about a dozen speakers.
As for those other hearings—in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.—they, too, added a second day. The other unexpected development involved power itself. As the EPA website explains: “As the result of a large scale power outage at the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, EPA has decided to move the July 29 and 30, 2014, Atlanta Clean Power Plan public hearings to the nearby Omni Hotel.”
—Gail Reitenbach, PhD, Editor (@GailReit, @POWERmagazine)
