Arizona is preparing for new federal standards that will curtail carbon emissions coming from power plants.
By the end of summer, the Environmental Protection Agency will release its final regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent nationwide and in Arizona by more than 50 percent — one of the highest targets in the country. This is based on 2005 levels.
Last year, the state submitted comments on the EPA’s proposed plan, questioning not only the agency’s legal authority, but also the reduction targets and the pace of adopting them.
“The EPA wanted to offer states a large amount of flexibility to resolve an issue or plan for compliance, the unfortunate part is that flexibility didn’t exist in Arizona,” said Eric Massey of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
While other states can use a variety of methods to reduce emissions, Massey said Arizona does not have the same options at its disposal, primarily because cutbacks in emissions here would come from switching to natural gas.
