Indiana to oppose Obama's EPA restrictions on coal fired power plants

By Rob Janicki

Indiana will not comply with President Barack Obama's plan to battle climate change by requiring reductions in emissions from coal-fired power plants, Republican Gov. Mike Pence said Wednesday.

Governor Pence seems to be playing hardball with the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan created by the EPA, not because he particularly wants to, but because he has to with Indiana's very heavy dependence upon their coal fired power plants in the state.  Governor Pence's motivation is open to debate and discussion and it will be highly contested by environmentalists and the Obama administration.. 

Environmentalists will counter claim that Governor Pence is in the thrall of the coal companies and is opposing any environmental restrictions on the use of coal for power generation solely to satisfy coal producers and users.  The implication is that Pence receives some political benefit from opposing the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan that is greater than his interest in protecting and improving the health of Indiana's population.

Indiana may be more dependent upon coal for power generation than any other state.  Closing coal fired power plants will most certainly be economically devastating to Indiana as will the costs of conversion to a whole new natural gas fired power generation system.  

Coal related jobs will be lost, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  The cost of energy in any conversion will be costly to those least able to shoulder the burden of higher energy costs.  The poor would be hit hardest with increased costs of energy.

In any conversion from coal to natural gas, a balancing must be made through a cost/benefit analysis.  In other words, the benefits must significantly outweigh the costs of any coal to natural gas conversion or any portion of a conversion.  It's an economic analysis that must be made, but which environmentalists refuse to acknowledge, since the costs are significantly greater than any demonstrable health benefits

Mark Maassel, president of the Indiana Energy Association, which represents the state's investor-owned utilities, said the group believes "the Clean Power Plan will be extremely costly for Indiana customers, which also means it's also bad for the economy. It's very questionable whether it will be supported in the courts."

I suspect that Governor Pence is counting on the courts to overturn any EPA plan to put greater restrictions on coal fired power generation plants in Indiana.  Whether Pence believes the proposed EPA restriction will be overturned in court or whether he is playing a delaying game is not certain at this time.  The following is what Indiana may be up against in their fight to overturn any EPA regulations imposing even stricter pollution emission standards on their coal fired power generation plants. 

A federal appeals court earlier this month threw out a lawsuit from a coalition of Indiana and 14 other states that claimed the EPA exceeded its authority last year when it proposed climate change plan.