ATLANTA — Downtown Atlanta took on a circus atmosphere Tuesday as groups on both sides of a proposed federal rule on carbon emissions staged rallies, held press conferences and paraded activists before microphones to testify during an all-day public hearing.
Staff from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listened for 11 hours as dozens of witnesses took turns giving five-minute testimonies in each of two rooms about their views of the complex proposal.
Business, farm and labor groups, senior-citizens’ advocates and conservative regulators from Georgia and nearby states described the proposed rule as too restrictive and unrealistic, arguing that current technology would be unable to meet its requirements and that state regulation is already sufficiently reducing carbon emissions from power plants.
“Please leave us alone,” Georgia Public Service Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said. “We see the goals ourselves and know how to achieve them.”
They also warned that reducing reliance on carbon-producing coal for electricity generation would result in higher costs for power and other fuels like natural gas, which is critical in producing fertilizers for food production.
“Now the people I represent don’t understand kilowatt hours. They don’t understand the technical side of what (the EPA) is trying to do,” said Mississippi state Sen. Kenneth Wayne Jones, D-Canton. “They don’t understand the political side of what we’re dealing with. But they do understand when a utility bill is too high to pay.”
Small-business owners, like Chris McCorkle of McCorkle Nurseries outside Augusta, said electricity is his second-largest expense behind payroll.
“Our concern is that by adding costs to energy, it will impede our growth,” he said.
But environmental activists said the rule should actually be tougher, with tighter deadlines for compliance, because carbon emissions contribute to asthma suffering and climate change that is raising both temperatures and sea levels in Georgia.
Ashten Bailey, a staff attorney for the GreenLaw firm, compared the technological challenge of meeting the proposed emissions limits to the space race.
“In 1960, no human had even been in outer space, and a mere nine years later, the U.S. had landed an astronaut on the moon,” she said.
Bailey said every Georgian receiving electricity from Plant Scherer near Forsyth — the country’s largest coal-burning power plant — has a responsibility for reducing its emissions by switching to renewable sources or conservation. She quoted the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s estimate that Georgians could reduce power generation 24 percent through increased efficiency.
Steve Smith, a veterinarian who heads the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, testified that he is confident the technology will be available when the proposed deadline demands it.
“Why, if we have the tools to address the problem, would we not apply it?” he said.
The hearing in Atlanta continues today. Additional public hearings will be held in Denver, Washington and Pittsburgh. After taking public comments, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy intends to consider modifications of the rule before formally putting it into place.
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