2015 POTUS LETTER APPROVED Dear Mr. President: As Democrats committed to a prosperous American economy and a healthy environment, we believe the United States has a unique opportunity to lead the world in addressing the global carbon challenge without unduly burdening our own economy. Seizing that opportunity will require the adoption of energy and environmental policies that will encourage and induce the international community – industrialized and developing nations alike – to follow our lead. In that regard, American leadership must be built upon a recognition of the realities of global energy demand, the role all energy sources – including coal – will play in the world’s energy future, and the imperative of accelerated energy innovation. We write to you today because we believe the current direction of U.S. policy – underscored in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed standards for new and existing electric generating units – falls short of these critical benchmarks and requires serious reconsideration. Last year, 422 Democratic leaders from across the nation joined together in support of the mission of the CoalBlue Project. We wrote to you to express our strong belief in the need to secure a diverse mix of sustainable energy resources, including sustainable coal, as vital to America’s future and its standing in the world. Today, we renew the call for a sustainable energy agenda that reflects a realistic assessment of coal’s enduring role in meeting our nation’s and the world’s demand for energy for decades to come, and how we can make that reality compatible with the goal of reducing global CO2 emissions. We write to you not on behalf of any industry or special interest, but on behalf of the American people we represent in elective office and as leaders within the Democratic Party. Despite the significant steps being taken in the United States and across the globe to conserve energy through greater energy efficiency, the world will nonetheless consume ever-greater amounts of energy in the decades to come, and coal will, without question, be a critical part of future energy supply. In fact, globally, coal has been the fastest growing fuel of the 21st Century, and is forecast by some to overtake oil as the world’s number one source of energy by the end of this decade. Worldwide, coal consumption is projected to increase 56 percent between 2010 and 2035, with developing and emerging economies accounting for more than 100 percent of that increase. The nations of the developing world are starving for affordable and reliable energy that will enable their economies to grow and their citizens to prosper. With so much of their growth fueled by coal and other fossil fuels, it is in the developing world where the carbon challenge will be won or lost, with success hinging on our ability to manage the carbon in coal (and natural gas), not thinking or hoping we can simply wish it away. Looking beyond conservation and efficiency, our efforts and our focus must be on the development and use of truly sustainable energy – energy that is abundant, affordable, reliable, and clean. At present, no source of energy meets all four elements of sustainability. For that reason, the United States must invest more in energy innovation, working to make clean those electrons that are today affordable and reliable, and to make affordable and reliable those electrons that are relatively clean. Unfortunately, current policies are overwhelmingly skewed toward the latter, while giving little attention and support to the former. This imbalance is a serious failing that demands immediate attention. To be focused only on clean is not enough. Energy affordability and reliability are of critical importance to every American family and business, and are factors that have led the United States to the heights of prosperity. Maintaining access to affordable and reliable energy – domestically and globally – are essential prerequisites to any effort to address the carbon challenge. The American people will object, and other nations of the world will not follow our lead, if the path America charts results in more expensive, less reliable energy. True leadership requires the pursuit of policies that will make all forms of clean energy less expensive, be they renewable or fossil-based, and as reliable as current baseload coal-fired generation. Approved Unfortunately, the EPA’s proposed rules for new and existing electric generating units severely miss the mark in many regards. Taken together, the proposals endanger the development of critical carbon-mitigating technologies necessary to achieve sustainability, threaten the reliability of the power grid, and place on the American public an economic burden that will not be offset by any meaningful reductions in global carbon emissions. EPA’s proposed rule for new generating units will inhibit the development and deployment of advanced energy technologies that are critical to carbon mitigation. Despite EPA claims to the contrary, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology – the linchpin of EPA’s new unit proposal – is not yet commercially viable. Nor will the proposed regulations make it so. According to CCS developers and manufacturers – the very companies that stand to gain financially from rules that would aggressively drive CCS technology forward – the EPA’s proposal threatens to stifle technology innovation and discourage needed development financing. In practical application, the rule as proposed will actually work against itself. EPA’s proposed rule for existing generating units will place tremendous economic burdens on the American economy, American families, and American businesses, without any material impact alone on global carbon emissions. Absent other nations following our lead, the EPA’s proposal will do nothing to stem the growth of global CO2 emissions. Leadership requires that others follow, and while we not only support, but call for U.S. leadership in addressing the global carbon challenge, policies that increase the cost of electricity and reduce the reliability of the grid – as the EPA’s proposal for existing units would do – will not lead other nations to follow. Moreover, raising the cost of energy in the United States will lead to a transfer of economic activity and jobs from the United States to other nations – many of which generate electricity less efficiently and with far higher rates of CO2 emissions. This “carbon leakage” will actually result in a net increase in global CO2 emissions, all the while our constituents will be paying an economic price at home. As Democrats, particularly mindful of the impact of public policy on families, workers, and small businesses, we find such an outcome difficult to explain. In the United States, we are blessed with an abundance of natural resources that, if properly managed, have the potential to provide a level of North American energy independence never before seen in our nation’s modern history. Achieving this elusive goal will require the wise use of our entire portfolio of resources, including our domestic fossil fuels and, importantly, coal. Through the continued use of coal and other fossil fuels and the concurrent development of commercially viable, advanced sustainable energy technologies, not only will the prospects for North American energy independence become more achievable, but we will fashion a model of addressing carbon emissions to be replicated across the globe. In this regard, the CoalBlue Project encourages the EPA to reconsider and revise its proposed regulations on new and existing generating units – regulations that, in their current form, run counter to many of the economic and environmental goals you have espoused, as well as fail the people we represent. Mr. President, we have consciously sought to be constructive in expressing our concerns regarding the EPA’s proposed rules for new and existing power plants and the larger imbalance in our current energy and environmental policies. Our goal is to work with you and your administration to seize the opportunity before us for the United States to show itself a leader – through an unparalleled commitment to energy innovation – on one of the most daunting challenges of our time. Let us lead by bringing abundant, affordable, reliable, and clean energy – sustainable coal, natural gas, wind, solar, and nuclear energy – to our nation and to the world. Holding fast to our Democratic traditions and principles, we endeavor to work with you to meet our obligation to deliver a prosperous economy and a clean, enduring environment for future generations. Respectfully,