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Environment Georgia reacts to SCOTUS decision on power plant emissions

Yellow front end loaders are dwarfed by piled coal in front of Georgia Power's Plant Scherer in Juliette.
GPB News
Yellow front end loaders are dwarfed by piled coal in front of Georgia Power's Plant Scherer in Juliette.

Thursday’s Supreme Court decision limiting the power of the EPA to regulate emissions from power plants has some environmental groups worried.

"The Supreme Court has come out and said that approach, addressing climate change and pollution at all power plants, is not something that EPA can do," said Jennette Gayer, Director of Environment Georgia.

While the court’s ruling ties the EPA’s hands when it comes to making broad policy decisions about greenhouse gas emissions, Gayer says that the agency still has some options.

"If there's a plant that is really a big problem, they could address that problem in a one at a time way," Gayer said. "They can also still regulate climate change pollution from the transportation sector. Right now they are considering a rule that would regulate climate change pollution from really large trucks."

Gayer notes that three power plants in Georgia, two coal-fired and one natural gas, are among the 100 dirtiest power plants in the country.

Local and state governments also have some regulatory ability.

"Local and state agencies can absolutely still do things to address climate change pollution from power plants and beyond," Gayer said. So Athens, for example, has a commitment to 100% clean energy. This ruling does nothing to that commitment, does nothing to the work that we are doing locally, to help reduce our reliance on dirty energy and energy that produces a lot of climate change pollution."

Athens-Clarke County lawmakers have set some ambitious clean energy goals for the county. Under a plan being finalized now, 100 percent of the county government’s total energy would come from clean and renewable sources by 2035, along with 100 percent of the community’s electricity, with all countywide energy needs being met by clean and renewable sources by 2050.

That plan is currently open for public input.

Martin Matheny is WUGA's Program Director and a host and producer of our local news program 'Athens News Matters.' He started at WUGA in 2012 as a part-time classical music host and still hosts WUGA's longest-running local program 'Night Music' which is heard on WUGA and GPB Classical. He lives in Normaltown with his wife, Shaye and dog, Murphy.
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