Tuesday, November 17th 2015

From Pittsburg Tribute:

“Pennsylvania is one of just six states that has not joined either side of the legal battle over the Obama administration’s marquee regulation aimed at limiting carbon pollution from the power sector.

Don’t confuse that with inaction. After months of conducting hearings and a public comment period that ended Thursday, Pennsylvania is close to writing a first draft of its proposal to meet the requirements of the Clean Power Plan, the state’s top environmental regulator said.

“We have a lot of data that we have to look at and then in some kind of orderly way start considering these big questions,” Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley told the Tribune-Review. “I think we can be at that work pretty expeditiously, at least to the point we can start to do some scenario building in terms of our modeling capability.”

Despite concerns from opponents, conflicting economic forecasts and a tight time line, Quigley’s agency is moving ahead on writing a plan by September that he hopes will balance a need to reduce climate-changing emissions with maintaining the state’s status as a top energy producer.

“There’s really an opportunity for Pennsylvania to demonstrate sustainability to the nation,” he said.

The regulations that require states to cut carbon emissions from power plants by about a third over the next 15 years have become a national flash point. Twenty-six states are suing to block the plan, and 18 states filed to intervene in support.”

Read more at triblive.com…