White House Sees Greening Power Sector Even if Court Hobbles EPA

Powerful economic currents are already pushing electric utilities toward clean energy even if the U.S. Supreme Court hands down a ruling that limits the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy said Thursday.

Those trends could counterbalance a possible finding from the high court that the Environmental Protection Agency overreached in regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.

The Supreme Court on Feb. 28 will start hearing arguments in West Virginia v. EPA, which seeks to limit how the EPA can regulate emissions from stationary sources under the clear air law. Republican members of Congress, GOP-led states, and conservative legal groups insist that executive authority on emissions regulation is limited.

But every one of the leaders of 10 of the nation’s biggest investor-owned utilities who met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday “understood that clean energy is the future,” McCarthy said at a webinar convened by Politico.

She also noted that Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good, in a Thursday earnings call, highlighted the company’s coal plant retirements and stressed its transition to renewable energy.

Carbon Capture

McCarthy said the administration will deliver a guidance document on carbon capture, use, and sequestration “in a very short time” that will ensure the technology is “properly managed and properly looked at, so we can understand its consequences.”

The former EPA administrator acknowledged that “there are folks that don’t think this is the answer,” but added that “we also have technology options and we have an ability to be able to try this out.”

Carbon capture projects, such as the privately financed Midwest Carbon Express in North Dakota, seek to collect carbon dioxide emissions at dozens of facilities and inject the emissions into underground porous rock, where supporters of the technology say the emissions will be trapped forever.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality said in a June 2021 report to Congress that the federal government could get carbon capture projects up and running faster if it issued new rules, adjusted its permitting requirements, and supported the industry with its buying power.

Organzing on EJ

When asked about the demands from some advocates to appoint a high-ranking environmental justice expert in her office, McCarthy said CEQ already has a “terrific” EJ office, and that “there’s very little difference there because that’s a White House office as well.”

But she also said she could “certainly take a look at what folks think is the best way to organize this.”

Cecilia Martinez, the first-ever senior director for environmental justice at CEQ, left the agency in early January, later saying the job had worn her out. Corey Solow, Martinez’ former deputy, is spearheading the CEQ effort for now.

McCarthy said the White House is getting ready to unveil an environmental justice screening tool aimed at identifying communities that would be in line to benefit from Biden’s Justice40 commitment.

She said the tool “will give us an ability to look at every penny that we invest” to ensure that 40% of the benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy go to environmental justice communities.