The hearing follows an earlier session earlier in October, during which members questioned EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Janet McCabe.
“When EPA proposed its rule on June [2014], it projected a base case that said there would be an estimated 244 gigawatts of coal generation in 2020 under existing regulatory and economic conditions,” Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), who serves as the Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman, said. “Today, EPA says that the base case shows an estimated 208 gigawatts of coal generation capacity by 2020. My understanding is there have been no significant regulations or economic changes since your first estimate, so can you explain why EPA would eliminate 36 gigawatts of coal generation from its baseline?”
Other issues raised at the earlier hearing included the location of EPA public hearings on its proposed regulations.
“You disenfranchised the people of Appalachia because you didn’t come to talk to any of the coal producing areas,” Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) said. “You refused to come and have a hearing there. That’s why your comments are going to support what you got because you went out and found the people that agree with you.”
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