POLITICO CCS2/3/14 4:57 PM ESTThe Center for Regulatory Effectiveness is taking aim at the administrative process behind EPA’s proposed carbon limits for new power plants. In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy today, CRE advisory board member Jim Tozzi raised several questions about the legal process behind the agency’s technology assessment of carbon capture and sequestration, which underlies the rule’s key assertion that the technology is viable for future coal-fired power plants. The arguments of Tozzi’s letter lay out the beginning of a legal strategy for opposing the agency’s proposed rule for new power plants, zeroing in on peer review of the science and the question of whether EPA followed administrative procedure to the letter of the law. EPA’s regulation setting greenhouse gas limits for new plants has to stand up in court if the agency wants to finish its rule requiring the nation’s thousands of existing power plants to scale back carbon emissions. Tozzi and CRE said in the letter that there has been a “clear failure by EPA to comply with legally binding [Office of Management and Budget] data quality peer review rules.” The shortcomings of the rule are also “compromising the ability and rights of the public and CRE to comment” to the proposal. — Erica Martinson |