Georgia Power’s power sources
Coal 41%
Oil and gas 35%
Nuclear 22%
Hydro 2%
Coming Sunday: Georgia officials acknowledge the reality of climate change, yet have done little to combat the threat. Coastal communities, however, are preparing for a future of warmer temperatures, higher sea levels and the possibility of large-scale damage.
Coming Sunday: Georgia officials acknowledge the reality of climate change, yet have done little to combat the threat. Coastal communities, however, are preparing for a future of warmer temperatures, higher sea levels and the possibility of large-scale damage.
Georgia must cut carbon emissions from its power plants by one-quarter over the next 15 years under new Obama administration rules announced Monday in the president’s most forceful push yet to combat a warming Earth.
The regulations were met with immediate criticism, the threat of lawsuits and talk of higher electric rates.
While some states could refuse to implement the rule, Gov. Nathan Deal said he had directed the state Environmental Protection Division “to develop the best approach to this rule for Georgia.”
After Georgia officials beseeched the Environmental Protection Agency, the state got more breathing room under the standards that were first proposed more than a year ago. As a result, Georgia Power’s massive investment in nuclear energy at Plant Vogtle near Augusta will help the state meet the requirements.
Georgia Public Service Commissioner Chuck Eaton said he “appreciated” the EPA’s shifts, but he still thinks the agency is overstepping its bounds and electric rates will go up.
“Some of these folks in Washington are trying to put the word out there that somehow this is going to decrease electric rates, which is really just a bunch of phooey,” said Eaton, a Republican.
Jennette Gayer, the director of Environment Georgia, said the plan is feasible and state leaders should embrace it.
“If you look at our wind resources, our solar resources and the potential for energy efficiency we could knock this thing out of the park,” Gayer said.
At the White House, President Barack Obama dismissed “scaremongering” by the fossil fuel industry, business groups and Republicans. He said the plan is the best chance for the U.S. to show leadership, ahead of a possible United Nations climate agreement to be negotiated by mid-December.
He called the Clean Power Plan “the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change.”
Overall, EPA estimates the plan will result in a 32 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels. The mandates phase in from 2022 to 2030, and states are to come up with their own strategy for meeting the targets. Georgia's target — a reduction of 16 million tons of carbon from 2012 levels — is in the middle range of states, as the state already uses a fairly diverse mix of electricity.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state is almost completely dependent on coal-generated power, has urged states to ignore the rule. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said the federal government would impose its own plan on states that fail to produce one, but "we're quite a long time away from that event."
More than a dozen states sued the EPA based on the proposed rule, but Georgia was not among them. Now that the plan is final, Georgia is expected to challenge it in court.
For a president who said during his first campaign that future generations will look back and say "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," Obama's climate policy has had its ups and downs.
Congress, even under Democratic control, stymied Obama’s first-term plans for a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions. So Obama has pushed the limits of EPA’s powers under the Clean Air Act to regulate power plants and the heat-trapping gases scientists say threaten the planet’s future. He has been met with resistance at every turn.
Critics argue that restricting power generation harms the economy, that renewable energy is not reliable enough and that Obama’s efforts will have little practical effect on climate change – particularly with China surpassing the U.S. as the world’s top emitter.
The White House and environmental groups paint a dirty picture of Georgia’s carbon-damaged environment. Asthma, for example, harms 8 percent of adult Georgians and 11 percent of its children, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly 60 million metric tons of carbon pollution were emitted into the atmosphere by Georgia power plants in 2013. That’s equivalent to the amount of pollution caused annually by 12 million cars.
Georgia politicians have done little to mitigate climate change. Deal, unlike his predecessor, has no energy strategy. A 2006 carbon registry proposal, intended to inventory the state’s greenhouse gases, is dead.
Atlanta corporate bigwigs Coca-Cola and UPS joined Fortune 500 companies across the country last week in support of Obama’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in clean energy. The dozen or so companies pledged to spend $140 billion to reduce carbon emissions and create 1.6 gigawatts of new clean energy projects.
But Southern Company, the parent company of Georgia Power, has repeatedly battled with the Obama administration on its power plant regulations.
“The implications of the overreaching rules directly impact national energy policy and impede states’ authority to act in the best interests of customers,” said Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins.
Hawkins pointed to moves Georgia Power has taken to reduce emissions.
Coal accounts for 41 percent of Georgia Power’s energy portfolio, down from 62 percent in 2011. The state’s largest electricity supplier has shuttered coal-burning plants and modernized others to increase efficiency. Natural gas — plentiful, cheap and cleaner than coal – is increasingly added to Georgia’s energy mix.
And more reductions are on the way. Georgia Power has eliminated 15 coal-and oil-fired units and is spending $6 billion to retrofit coal plants to reduce CO2, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
The environmental construction program comes as the company has also begun increasing, albeit slowly, its renewable energy portfolio, including solar power. The White House credits Georgia with a 55 percent increase in renewable energy since 2008.
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