House to vote on Clean Power rule involvement Friday

The House of Delegates will vote Friday on a plan to give legislators a role in the state’s answer to the EPA’s new Clean Power rule.

House Bill 2004 requires legislative involvement in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s decision on implementing the new requirements.

West Virginia Coal Association vice president Chris Hamilton said the legislature should be part of the answer.

“The legislature simply wants structured involvement and a shared responsibility for the development of the state’s implementation plan,” Hamilton said.

DEP Secretary Randy Huffman has been lukewarm to the extra help, citing concerns it could delay the DEP’s response. The agency will likely have about a year once the EPA approves the new guidelines, expected this June.

The EPA is requiring states to use five building blocks to clean-up emissions created by things like coal-fired power plants. The EPA could make things tough on a state if it didn’t submit its own plan. Hamilton said state leaders won’t let that happen.

“Nobody is going to allow—the industry, the legislature, the electric utility industry—are not going to allow the federal EPA to come in here and prescribe, implement and enforce their own plan,” he said. “This (bill) just gives the legislature the opportunity to work with the DEP.”

If passed Friday by the House, the bill would head to the state Senate.