BOULDER — As the Obama administration advances a plan to cut carbon pollution linked to climate change, former Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday a shift to cleaner energy will happen regardless of whether Colorado fights it in court.
The against the EPA-driven Clean Power Plan won’t stop a shift away from burning fossil fuels, Ritter said at a University of Colorado law school forum.
“Coal is going to have a difficult time surviving,” he said at the forum, sponsored by the Center for American Progress. In fact, Ritter said, he anticipates coal mining in Colorado, now done mostly for a declining export market, will disappear.
A Democrat who served from 2007 to 2011, Ritter made promotion of natural gas and renewable wind and solar energy a hallmark of his time at the Capitol. Gov. John Hickenlooper, respecting Coffman’s due diligence in challenging the Clean Power Plan, has said Colorado will comply.
Energy companies and states across the country are — driven by increasing economic opportunities from natural gas and renewables, Ritter said. His Center for the Renewable Energy Economy, based at Colorado State University, is working with communities across the West, including Wyoming, which also is challenging the EPA, to hasten a shift to renewable sources.
Legal challenges of the sort Coffman is pursing, accusing the EPA of overreaching federal authority under the Clean Air Act, “is just part of the world of the EPA,” Ritter said after a panel discussion at CU. “The EPA, no matter what it does, gets sued. They’re in a tough place. … The shift is happening, even apart from the Clean Power Plan, around the country.”
EPA officials announced Thursday they will post the in the Federal Register on Friday, launching a comment period until Jan. 21 that agency officials said would include public hearings.
The plan targets existing coal-burning power plants to cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 32 percent against 2005 levels. Power plants cause about a third of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that scientists blame for global warming.
Obama called this “the biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken to combat climate change.” White House officials contend the plan will help compel other big polluters, such as China, to cut emissions. Critics call it a job-killer.
The plan gives states targets and some governors have threatened not to comply. . For more than a decade, voters and lawmakers have worked to develop renewable energy sources and gradually to replace coal-burning power plants.
Attorney General Coffman and other governors argue the EPA is exceeding federal authority to regulate pollution under the Clean Air Act. But the Supreme Court already has buttressed that power.
