The North Carolina Senate has passed a bill that would prohibit any state agency from fully complying with the EPA鈥檚 .
The Obama Administration announced the EPA Clean Power Plan . It directs each state to develop an individualized plan to cut coal-plant emissions by 32 percent by 2030.
The amended bill () would allow the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to develop a very limited plan to improve heat rates on some coal-fired plants. DENR requested the amendment and negotiated the new language, along with other stakeholders, including Duke Energy. Environmental advocacy groups were not consulted.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 vote is a bad faith circumvention of the historic Clean Power Plan," said Molly Diggins, director of the , in a release. "The Senate would require DENR to create a state plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that is designed to fail in order to set up a legal confrontation with EPA.鈥�
The bill also says that DENR 鈥渟hall bring an action in the appropriate federal court or courts to challenge the EPA Clean Power Plan.鈥�
Governor Pat McCrory vowed to bring a lawsuit against the EPA. Other states have already done so.
The measure now goes to the House. Leaders there have said it is unlikely to concur, sending the bill to a conference committee.
