WASHINGTON – The Obama administration issued landmark rules Monday to cut greenhouse gases from coal-burning power plants, mapping out a 15-year path to increase wind and solar power, and energy conservation that Minnesota already is taking.
The final Environmental Protection Agency rules require the U.S. power sector to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent in 2030 from 2005 levels. The overall reductions are stricter than those proposed in a draft last year, but states and utilities got more time to comply.
"This is one of those rare issues that if we don't get it right, we might not be able to reverse it," President Obama told a White House crowd that included Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke.
The Clean Power Plan, Obama said, is "the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against climate change."
Franken agreed. "I thought it was a bit of history," he told the Star Tribune.
The rules are the product of two years of EPA development and likely face years of legal challenges. States are required to develop compliance plans by September 2018, make interim reductions by 2022 — two years later than originally proposed — and fully comply by 2030.
States may choose to roll out an array of policies that could shutter coal power plants or run them less, order utilities to build wind farms and solar energy and invest in energy conservation at homes and businesses. The final rule puts less emphasis on converting or replacing generators with natural-gas burning units, which release about half the carbon dioxide of coal burners.
Compliance is not optional. States that refuse to offer acceptable programs will have a federal model applied to them, EPA officials said.