FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 22, 2015

Contact: Matt Kasper, Energy & Policy Institute, (630) 908-9615, kasperm@energyandpolicy.org

Update: The New York Times reports that American Electric Power intends to sue the administration over the rule.

EPA’s Clean Power Plan will be formally published in tomorrow’s Federal Register. It is expected that lawsuits will be filed shortly after publication. While the electric utility industry has highlighted its involvement with the Obama Administration regarding the Clean Power Plan in recent days, utility companies including the industry’s trade association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), have worked to stop the rules and continue to fund organizations focused on overturning the rules.

Here are the facts:

  • EEI’s Todd Wynn promoted a litigation strategy at the American Legislative Exchange Council annual conference this past July. EEI is concerned that just ignoring the rules would weaken the industry’s standing to sue. Wynn said, “Our folks think that submitting a [compliance] plan is a good way to go for a couple reasons… For one thing, it doesn’t ruin your standing as far as litigation is concerned… Putting something in the books so they can continue with the litigation strategy… is the right direction.”
  • The Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), represented by Hunton & Williams LLP, was an intervenor petitioner earlier this year in the lawsuit Murray Energy and West Virginia led that challenged the Clean Power Plan. EEI is a member of UARG and paid Hunton & Williams over $8 million in 2013.
  • Both American Electric Power and Duke Energy also supported UARG’s comments last year that said the Clean Power Plan is illegal.
  • A list of other UARG member companies and trade associations can be found here.
  • Southern Company and American Electric Power are just a few corporate members in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which stated that the group’s main priority now is “to focus all of our efforts on overturning the Clean Power Plan.” The group is also a member of UARG and supported UARG’s comments last year, and it also helped fund the flawed NERA Economic Consulting report attacking the Clean Power Plan.
  • Southern Company also funds the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which in addition to producing a discredited study on the rules this year, joined a coalition letter asking for state Attorneys General to challenge the rules and to not submit a State Implementation Plan.

For more information, see this network map built using the LittleSis free database.

About E&PI: The Energy & Policy Institute is a pro-clean energy think tank working to expose attacks on clean technology and counter misinformation by fossil fuel and utility interests.

Posted by Matt Kasper

Matt Kasper is the Deputy Director at the Energy and Policy Institute. He focuses on defending policies that further the development of clean energy sources. He also focuses on the companies and their front groups that obstruct policy solutions to global warming. Before joining the Energy and Policy Institute in 2014, Matt was a research assistant at the Center for American Progress where he worked on various state and local policy issues.

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