EMPOWERING STATES TO PROSPER: The Trump Administration is proposing the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule in order to restore the proper role of States under the Clean Air Act.
- The ACE Rule – which will undergo public comment – proposes new emission guidelines for States to use when developing plans to limit greenhouse gases at their power plants.
- This Rule gives States the flexibility needed to construct diverse, reliable energy portfolios that best fit their specific needs.
- The ACE Rule proposes to reduce emissions and provide flexibility through four key actions:
- Defining the “best system of emissions reduction” for existing power plants as on-site, heat-rate efficiency improvements.
- Providing States with a list of “candidate technologies” that can be used to establish standards of performance, which can be incorporated into State clean air plans.
- Updating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Source Review permitting program in a way that encourages investments in innovative power plant technologies.
- Aligning regulations to give States adequate time and flexibility to develop State plans.
PROMOTING AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE: The Trump Administration’s ACE Rule promotes American energy dominance while ensuring environmental protections are in place.
- The ACE Rule, if finalized, will significantly decrease bureaucratic red tape and compliance costs, keeping American energy affordable and competitive on the world stage.
- The EPA projects that the ACE Rule could reduce compliance costs by up to $6.4 billion compared to the Clean Power Plan (CPP).
- The ACE Rule can achieve these savings while still reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- The ACE Rule will ensure that the United States remains the world’s gold standard for energy production and environmental protection.
- Since 1970, the total emissions of criteria air pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act have dropped 73 percent, while the economy grew over 260 percent.
- Total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States fell by 14 percent from 2005 to 2017, while global emissions increased over 20 percent.
REPLACING BURDENSOME AND COSTLY REGULATIONS: The Trump Administration proposes replacing the Obama Administration’s costly and overreaching CPP.
- At President Trump’s direction, the EPA undertook a review of the Obama Administration’s overly prescriptive and burdensome CPP.
- The CPP was challenged by 150 entities, including 27 States and 24 trade associations.
- A bipartisan majority of the United States Congress formally disapproved of the CPP.
- The Supreme Court issued an historic stay of the CPP before it could be implemented.
- The CPP’s top-down approach to energy regulation would have unnecessarily raised electricity prices, harmed our economy, and cost jobs.
- An analysis by the National Economic Research Associates found that the CPP could have caused double-digit electricity price increases in 40 States.
- The impact of the CPP would have been disproportionately felt by low- to middle-income Americans who, as a group, spend a larger percentage of household income on energy costs.
