By Jeff McMahon

Last month Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged states to ignore the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, but the states are ignoring McConnell and working toward compliance, EPA Admninistrator Gina McCarthy said Friday at the University of Chicago.

Even states that are suing the EPA are preparing carbon-reduction plans, another official said, to meet their obligations under EPA’s proposed rule, which McCarthy guaranteed will be implemented and predicted will surpass its stated goals.

“It is going to happen,” McCarthy told about 120 people gathered at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and another 200 watching online. ”We have the legal—not just right and authority but responsibility—to do it. People expect us to do it. I don’t see any utility thinking we’re not going to do it. So the politics are one thing and reality is another.”

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Areas of Focus: Climate Change
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Climate Change
Climate change is an urgent global challenge. EPIC research is helping to assess its impacts, quantify its costs, and identify an efficient set of policies to reduce emissions and adapt...
Climate Law & Policy
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Climate Law & Policy
As countries around the world implement policies to confront climate change, EPIC research is calculating which policies will have the most impact for the least cost.