My name is Heath Knakmuhs, and I am Vice President and Policy Counsel for the Global Energy Institute, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”). The Chamber is the world’s largest business federation, representing the interests of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region. The mission of the Global Energy Institute is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean. The Chamber appreciates the opportunity to testify today in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) revised New Source Performance Standards (“NSPS”) for new, modified, and reconstructed fossil fuel-fired electric generating units.
When originally finalized in 2015, the NSPS exceeded the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act by imposing requirements on new coal-fired generating units that were neither “adequately demonstrated” nor “commercially available.” The 2015 NSPS wrongly concluded that carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) technology was required for the domestic construction of any new, large-scale coal-fired power plant, notwithstanding the fact that no such plant had yet been completed or deemed operational in the country at that time. The faulty conclusions that premised this rule prompted a lawsuit from the Chamber and 15 other business groups, as well as votes in both chambers of the 114th Congress to nullify the regulation.