SNL Power Daily interviewed Manatt's Craig Moyer, chair of the firm's Land, Environment and Natural Resources division, for an article on the enforcement authority that the U.S. EPA will have to exercise if it has to force its proposed greenhouse gas reduction rule for existing power plants on states.
As reported by SNL Power Daily, greenhouse gas reductions are so politically volatile that some states are objecting to enacting reduction measures in every way possible. The nature of the proposed rule and its far-reaching strategy for reductions could leave the EPA with only untested measures that could lead to politically difficult outcomes.
If the EPA imposes a federal plan, it will need some mechanism to force states into compliance. For pollutants specifically named in the Clean Air Act, the EPA has substantial authority. If it was really pushed into it, the agency could withhold federal transportation funding, a move it threatened once to a region in California, Moyer said.