On June 2, 2014, EPA, under President Obama's Climate Action Plan, released the long-awaited draft greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for existing power plants across the nation. Officially called "The Clean Power Plan," the proposed rule establishes state-by-state 2030 GHG goals (except for Vermont, which doesn't have any fossil-fuel-fired power plants). The three most important questions about how EPA would handle the regulation were 1) what the baseline year would be, 2) how deep the reductions would cut, and 3) what alternatives would be counted toward that reduction. In sum, the proposed regulations call for carbon emissions cuts from the power sector of 30 percent below 2005 levels by no later than 2030 and virtually all existing state programs to reduce GHG should be able to be counted toward the reductions.
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