Hoeven: EPA Moves to Approve North Dakota Regional Haze Plan, Support Baseload Power

BISMARCK, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven issued the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposal to approve North Dakota’s full State Implementation Plan (SIP) for managing regional haze. Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the SIP must be regularly updated with the EPA. As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Hoeven has worked to prevent the EPA from imposing costly one-size-fits-all regulations on North Dakota’s energy industry, having previously secured the agency’s approval of the state’s haze mitigation plan in 2015. However, when the filing was updated with the agency in 2022, the Biden administration partially denied the SIP, despite the fact that North Dakota was on track to surpass its air quality targets. Once approved, the SIP will empower the state to once again take the lead in managing emissions from North Dakota’s coal-fired power plants. Doing so will provide regulatory relief to support continued access to these critical baseload power sources, while ensuring good air quality. “This is tremendous news for our coal industry in North Dakota, which has consistently achieved its air quality targets without the need for costly, burdensome federal rules. We have proven time and again that state-led regulation gets the job done more cost-effectively, which helps ensure access to the reliable and affordable electricity produced by coal. That’s why I’ve worked since my time as governor to ensure the EPA approves the state’s haze mitigation plan, while pushing back on one-size-fits-all rules that were imposed on our coal producers under the Obama and Biden administrations,” said Hoeven. The SIP’s approval aligns with Hoeven’s broader efforts to secure the future of North Dakota’s coal industry. To this end, the senator continues working to: Advance his Crack the Code 2.0 initiative, with the goal of both doubling oil recovery in the Bakken and doubling the life of North Dakota’s coal-fired power plants. Roll back burdensome, overreaching Biden-era regulations, including: The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) regulations, which would have replaced the existing cost-effective standards and had contributed to the closure of numerous power plants after first being advanced by the Obama administration in 2012. The Public Lands Rule, which would have overhauled the management of more than 245 million acres of taxpayer-owned lands and established “conservation leases” to lock away federal lands and minerals. The Resource Management Plan (RMP) for North Dakota, which would have closed off leasing to 45 percent of potential federal oil and gas acreage and nearly 99 percent of federal coal acreage in the state. -###-