The Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up for four, 11-hour “listening sessions” on its proposed Clean Power Plan, which, if implemented, would become the nation’s first law regulating carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

The two-day hearings are expected to attract oral comments from about 1,600 people, the EPA said.



Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last Wednesday on the agency's proposed Clean Power Plan. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The sessions will be held simultaneously in Atlanta, Denver and the nation's capital Tuesday and Wednesday, then move on to Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday. Panels of EPA officials will listen to comments from residents, industry groups, environmental advocates and others from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, but EPA head Gina McCarthy will not be present.

“No good ideas should be left off the table,” McCarthy said in a call with reporters Monday morning. “We have been really engaged in these activities. We haven’t let up at all.”

The Clean Power Plan, which would set emissions benchmarks for each state, has become the subject of fierce debate between environmental and industry groups. With months to go before the 120-day public comment period ends October 16, it’s already attracted 300,000 public comments by mail, fax and email.

Industry groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute and American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, argue it amounts to a “war on coal” that will come with steep economic costs. Environmental advocates, by contrast, insist it represents a critical step toward addressing and stemming climate change while also not impinging American business.

"The EPA regulation is unprecedented in its scope and will force changes well beyond the fossil fuel plants it proposes to regulate," said Karen Harbert, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, during a call with reporters Tuesday. "It forces changes into other industries and other sources."

The chamber is one of 140 organizations that make up the Partnership for a Better Energy Future, which opposes the rule.

Peter Altman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised the EPA's proposal, calling it "the most important step we can take to protect Americans and future generations."