U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, and state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, say the Environmental Protection Agency’s finalized rule to require coal plants that plan to stay open beyond 2039 to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 ignores the importance of grid reliability and predict “negative consequences” from the “destructive” policies.

The rule, according to a news release from Meuser’s office, would also require new electric plants fueled by coal or gas to capture 90% of carbon emissions. It sets unrealistic standards and is effectively attempting to force coal plants to retire early and prevent new plants from opening, the release said.

“Despite the warnings of grid transmission operators, utilities, grid reliability experts, and regulators that the U.S. is facing a grid reliability crisis compounded by surging power demand, the EPA has ignored those warnings and pushed ahead with its destructive agenda to essentially end coal-powered electricity in the United States,” Meuser, who is co-chair of the Congressional Coal Caucus, said, according to the news release.

“The EPA is using the cumulative impact of a suite of rules — a so-called ‘Clean Power Plan 2.0.’ The EPA’s rules will accelerate coal plant retirements when our grid reliability and the affordability of the nation’s power supply demand just the opposite,” he said. “The EPA’s refusal to heed the warnings of the experts tasked with keeping the lights on and ensuring a reliable supply of power is alarming and will likely have negative consequences for millions of Americans.”

The EPA’s new rules “will further threaten Pennsylvania’s severely strained electric grid, lead to a tragic loss of energy jobs, and flies in the face of Governor Shapiro’s statewide economic development goals, all while triggering massive electricity rate increases at a time when most families are struggling paycheck to paycheck,” Yaw said, according to a news release from his office.

“The Biden Clean Power Plan 2.0 will impose an effective moratorium on natural gas plants and force coal plants to shutter prematurely, causing massive worker and community losses. Undeniably, this will have a detrimental effect across all regions of the United States’ power grid,” he said. “Pennsylvania, the largest supplier of electricity to other states, would be particularly devastated by this mandate, forcing electric ratepayers, mostly families, to bear the brunt of this dual attack on electric reliability and affordability.”

PJM, the entity that manages the mid-Atlantic power grid, has already warned that Pennsylvania could face energy rationing by 2026 and rolling blackouts as early as 2028, Yaw said, according to the news release.

PJM referred to state and federal policies as forcing the premature closure of reliable thermal generation, which is increasingly being replaced by unreliable, intermittent sources of weather-dependent power.

“I call on Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation to oppose the Biden-EPA Clean Power Plan and urge the Shapiro Administration to stand up for Pennsylvania workers and families, and energy communities who are the primary victims of these destructive power plant rules,” Yaw said.