Alaska exempt from clean power rules, for now
(Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Alaska will not have to comply with new federal mandates to cut carbon emissions from power plants, at least not yet.
Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski says she got word in a phone call from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
“And she said, ‘I listened to you.’”
In the draft rule, Alaska would have had to cut emissions by 26 percent. Murkowski, at a hearing in April, told McCarthy the target was unreachable and that Alaska was different, in part because its limited grid is cut off from all other states. The final rule says the EPA doesn’t have enough information to set target reductions for Alaska and other areas cut off from the national grid. Murkowski says that’s what McCarthy told her.
“And she said we realized we didn’t have the data and we didn’t have the data for good reason, because it effectively doesn’t exist. And so she said we realized we could not advance this at least for some time.”
Deadline deferred
The new national rule, released on Monday, requires other states to eliminate about a third of the carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 2030. The final rule doesn’t apply to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam or Puerto Rico.
“I wouldn’t use the word exempt. I would use the word defer,” says Janet McCabe, head of the EPA’s air quality office.
That’s Janet McCabe, head of the EPA air quality office.
“We intend to work with those jurisdictions and other sources to get information and move forward to finalize a plan. We do not set out a schedule for that at this time but we will move forward with that.”
Murkowski says she repeatedly pressed McCarthy on when the rules for the non-contiguous areas might be ready and she got no definite answer. The senator says it was her impression time might run out on the Obama Administration before then. Murkowski was visibly happy about the news.
Now, the question is whether she, as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee will join Republican efforts to block the rule from going into effect in other states. Murkowski says she hasn’t had enough time to look at the final version.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Canada’s remote communities work to reduce diesel use, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Solar power prospects good in Finland despite rainy summer, Yle News
Norway: Japan wants wind power from Arctic Norway, Barents Observer
Russia: No alternative to Arctic oil says Russia environment minister, Barents Observer
Sweden: Wind power investments down in Sweden, Radio Sweden
United States: Clinton has ‘doubts’ about Obama’s Arctic drilling policies, Alaska Dispatch News
