FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 16, 2019
Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) reintroduced legislation to further reduce red tape and burdensome regulations on energy producers by ensuring that power plants are no longer subject to onerous and expensive regulatory processes that discourage efficiencies and improvements. The two bills, S. 2104 and S. 2105, were previously introduced last Congress.
“Protecting Kentucky’s coal jobs and ensuring that unnecessary regulations aren’t standing in the way of the industry’s ability to compete has always been a top priority of mine, and these pieces of legislation are a continuation of my pledge to always defend Kentucky’s coal miners, their families, and the industry that keeps the lights on in our Commonwealth,” said Sen. Paul. “By changing the criteria for triggering New Source Review, an expensive and burdensome regulatory process, my bills would ensure that power plants are no longer disincentivized from increasing efficiency and making other improvements and modifications, and help prevent Kentucky’s coal jobs from falling victim to overbearing regulations.”
S. 2104: In current law, if modifications are made to a power plant to make the plant more efficient, environmentally friendly, or reliable, those modifications trigger the burdensome and expensive process of New Source Review, disincentivizing energy producers from making such modifications to their power plants. This bill would change that so if modifications of power plants are made to improve energy efficiency, pollution control, or reliability, New Source Review would not be triggered.
S. 2105: In current law, New Source Review is triggered if a modification of a power plant increases the amount of emissions, even if the new emissions amount is lower than the emissions rate as the plant was designed or the emissions rate that was historically reached. This bill changes this so that New Source Review would be triggered instead only if the modification causes the emissions to be higher than the hourly rate of the source as it was originally designed, and also higher than the maximum hourly emissions rate of the source that was actually achieved during the ten-year period preceding such a change. This change would mean that plants would no longer be disincentivized from making modifications so long as they were not increasing emissions above the plant’s original design or above the emissions levels actually historically reached.
Tyler White, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, released the following statement of support:
“The Kentucky Coal Association commends Senator Paul’s commitment to the coal industry by reintroducing S.2104 and S.2105, which will reduce red tape and bureaucracy for energy producers looking to improve efficiencies and productivity while achieving better environmental outcomes. House versions of the bills have been introduced by Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA). Senator Paul continues to be a proven leader and advocate for Kentucky’s coal industry. “
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