Thursday, July 02, 2015

White House touts EPA emission rules as long-term subsidy for wind

The White House says the power plant rules it plans to roll out this summer are part of a bid to create "long-term" incentives for wind and solar energy.
President Obama's senior climate change adviser, Brian Deese, explained the strategy Tuesday in a conference call with reporters to discuss a new agreement between the U.S. and Brazil to derive 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2030, excluding hydro-electric resources.
The Environmental Protection Agency's emission rules for power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan, would be used to undergird that goal, according to Deese.
"Our path to get there is consistent with the overall approach we've laid out, including principally being driven by the long-term incentives in the Clean Power Plan," Deese said. "One of the things we intend to accomplish in implementing the final Clean Power Plan rule … is to demonstrate strong, long-term incentives for investments in renewables."