TAMPA, FL \u2013 Today, Friday, October 23, 2015, Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc., in partnership with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), filed a \u201cPetition to Review\u201d the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP). This petition asks the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to examine whether the CPP was legally enacted. Additionally, Seminole asked the court to delay compliance with the rule until the petition could be resolved. This delay is referred to as a \u201cstay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clean Power Plan represents a massive overreach of EPA\u2019s regulatory authority. Today\u2019s filing is the next step in Seminole\u2019s strategy to protect our Member cooperatives, and consumers at the end of the line, from the rate increases required to implement the Clean Power Plan,\u201d said Lisa Johnson, Seminole\u2019s CEO and General Manager. \u201cHaving exhausted all other measures, including testifying at EPA listening sessions, submitting detailed public comments about the rule, testifying in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, testifying in front of Congress, meeting with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, and meeting with the President\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, Seminole is pursuing one of the few remaining options to protect the affordable, reliable electrical service that our Members enjoy today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Based in Tampa, Florida, Seminole is one of the largest generation and transmission cooperatives in the country. Its mission is to provide reliable, competitively priced, wholesale electric power to its nine not-for-profit, consumer-owned distribution electric cooperatives. Seminole and its Members collectively serve 1.4 million individuals and businesses in 42 Florida counties, providing essential electric service in primarily rural and low income areas of Florida stretching from west of Tallahassee to south of Lake Okeechobee. Approximately one-third of Seminole\u2019s residential customers have household incomes below the poverty level.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars of our Members\u2019 resources that we have spent on state-of-the-art emissions control equipment, there is no commercially viable technology that we can install at our plants to meet the emissions rate requirements of the Clean Power Plan,\u201d Johnson continued. \u201cSeminole\u2019s primary generating facility, the Seminole Generating Station, is currently financed through 2042. Should the EPA ultimately require us to close this plant, our Members will continue to make payments on it, while also needing to pay for new sources of electricity. Early estimates of the proposed rule have indicated that it may raise individual electric bills in Florida by more than 25%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seminole operates two primary generating facilities, the coal-fired Seminole Generating Station (SGS) located in Palatka, Florida and the natural gas-fired Midulla Generating Station (MGS) located in Bowling Green, Florida. Seminole\u2019s power plants cannot meet the emissions rates required by the CPP on a unit by-unit basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile compliance options such as buying carbon emissions credits, or interstate carbon trading, may become available in the future, they are not available today,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWithout protection from the court system, Seminole will need to begin making planning decisions as if our plants are going to be shut down. As a result, Seminole is asking the court to review the rule to ensure that it is legally sound before we are forced to make the kinds of decisions that could close our plants and raise our Members\u2019 electric rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Federal Court System has shown a recent willingness to stand firm against EPA expansions of its own authority. Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court overturned EPA\u2019s Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS) rule after years of legal fighting. A federal court also recently delayed enforcement of the much maligned EPA \u201cWaters of the United States\u201d (WOTUS) rule, remarking that the stay \u201ctemporarily silences the whirlwind of confusion that springs from uncertainty about the requirements of the new rule and whether they will survive legal testing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we recognize that our request for a stay of the Clean Power Plan may be an up-hill battle, Seminole is hopeful that the Court\u2019s recent trend toward tempering the EPA\u2019s regulatory onslaught will provide our Members with some relief,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to keep the lights on in rural Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seminole\u2019s nine member-owned distribution cooperatives are:<\/p>\n
Individuals concerned about how the Clean Power Plan will affect them should visit www.action.coop<\/a><\/strong> to contact their elected officials.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n