I’m just a MoveOn rank and file member, so I can’t speak to the complete motivation behind pushing this issue, but I can tell you why it makes sense to me.

First of all, it is not the only improvement MoveOn is pushing for. They also want to
- increase of the RPS, and
- move the remaining percentages of allowances going straight to oil and coal energy producers (not the utilities) into either consumers pockets, or funding for RE and EE research and/or deployment.

Restoring EPA Authority is a third prong of the attack, and while Joe Romm puts it 5th on his list of improvements in terms of effectiveness, I put it higher for two reasons. First, it would put an additional cost to coal based energy production that can’t be sidestepped with offsets. Existing Coal Power Plants don’t have to be taken off line, they can implement efficiency improvements which will greatly reduce CO2 emissions such as biomass or natural gas cofiring, or replacement of antiquated components. I understand that EIA and CBO analysis shows this will happen just due to the Carbon Cap, but no matter where the near term Cap ends up, it will not be low enough. The more reasons to fix existing power plants, or replace them with RE or EE, the better, because these changes mean jobs, and new jobs that will be useful in the future is what our country needs to truly revive the economy.

Second, why have all our eggs in one basket? The levels set by ACES are in the hands of the Legislature. If we need to make changes (and we will), that means getting a new bill passed, and look how hard that is now, even with the odds in our favor. While the effectiveness of the EPA can be sabotaged by a hostile administration, it can at least act independently from Congress.

I think MoveOn continues to push on this front because there is already movement within the Senate on the others, and doesn’t want this one to get lost. Also as a grassroots organization, you can’t deny that “Keep the EPA Authority over CO2” is more compelling than “Raise the RPS from 17% to 20%”. If we are to get improvements to the ACES bill passed, we’ll need to rally true grassroots (not astroturf) support for Clean Energy in much larger numbers that we see now. I agree we shouldn’t rally people with wrong information, but I do think that EPA Authority is worth pushing for.

“Right now the clean energy jobs bill does nothing to address the 30% of our nation’s global warming pollution that comes from old, dirty coal plants. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and make sure everyone, including your Senator, knows that cleaning up dirty coal plants must be a top priority.”

I replied:

This statement is false:

“Right now the clean energy jobs bill does nothing to address the 30% of our nation’s global warming pollution that comes from old, dirty coal plants.”

ACES gives free emission allowances to utilities that burn coal to reduce the hardship for ratepayers. The savings must be passed on to the rate payers.

Even with these free allowances, the utilities have an incentive to shift to cleaner fuels. Reducing their CO2 emissions will let them make a profit by selling the allowance. In fact, the economic incentive to shift to cleaner fuels is exactly the same whether they get the allowances for free or pay for them.

The most important change needed in W-M is to increase the short term goal from 17% to at least 20% reduction by 2020. I hope you work on this issue rather than continuing this misguided campaign against allowances for coal.

I have sent a couple of emails to moveon saying they are missing the main point by focusing on this issue instead of on strengthening the short-term 2020 target, which is much more important.

MoveOn.org (I’m a member), Sierra Club, 1Sky, Green For All, and many true grass roots organizations have backed this improvement. Hopefully we’ll see this as part of the markup of the ACES bill.

Andy