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Legislature Takes First Look At EPA Carbon Regulations

Stephanie Joyce

With the final draft of the federal Clean Power Plan due out later this summer, the Wyoming Legislature’s Minerals Committee took its first look at the proposal during a meeting in Casper Thursday.

Denver attorney Ray Gifford gave an overview of the regulation, which would cut carbon emissions from the power sector 30 percent by 2030. Gifford is a former chair of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission who now litigates on behalf of utilities. He emphasized that there’s considerable uncertainty about the specifics of the final rule, but said it will require drastic changes to how Wyoming generates and consumes electricity.

Legislators had lots of questions about the rule; many were seemingly unfamiliar with the basics of the proposal. Committee chairman Tom Lockhart says moving forward, he expects they'll draft legislation related to it.

“To help us get something that makes sense for Wyoming, something that has a chance of being passed by the legislature and signed by the governor that will contribute to minimizing the negative impacts of some of the rules that are coming up,” he said.

Unlike some other states, Lockhart says the Legislature will likely leave it up to the Department of Environmental Quality to craft a compliance plan. But Director Todd Parfitt says the department isn't planning to start work on that until the final rule is issued.

“It’s very difficult to develop a plan when you don’t know what the rules are going to be.”

Other states, including neighboring Montana and Colorado, have already started outlining compliance strategies and holding public meetings to get public input on how to approach the new rules.
 

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