According to new data from the US Energy Information Administration, most of the two dozen states that have sued to block the Clean Power Plan have decreased coal usage regardless. Reflective of the changing US energy landscape, the new data indicate many of these same states are also leaders in the wind industry. In the Washington Post, RFF Visiting Fellow Nathan Richardson explains the apparent inconsistency between the data and states' decision to sue: “Utilities and the states might not mind so much if market forces cause them to change, but they don’t want the EPA to tell them to do it … They are fighting to keep the option to grow their coal use in the future.”
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