Editor’s Note: Below are official comments submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Proposed Fossil Fuel Power Plant Rule.
William Happer
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Princeton University
Richard Lindzen
Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
July 19, 2023
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Docket Center ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072 FRL-8536-02-OAR
Mail Code 28221T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NE
Washington, D.C.
Re: Proposed Fossil Fuel Power Plant Rule: “New Source Performance Standards for
Greenhouse Gas Emissions From New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired
Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions From
Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean
Energy Rule” (the “Proposed Rule”)
Dear Administrator Reagan,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s
(“EPA”) Proposed Rule.1
We are career physicists who have specialized in radiation physics and dynamic heat
transfer for decades, subjects directly relevant to the global warming debate. Each of us has
published over 200 peer-reviewed papers on the science of climate or closely related subjects. Our
curricula vitae are attached in the appendix.
At the outset, these comments are organized around two Supreme Court opinions.
First, “‘scientific knowledge’ … must be derived by the scientific method.” Daubert v.
Merrell Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 593 (1993).
Second, an agency rule is “arbitrary and capricious if the agency … entirely failed to
consider an important aspect of the problem” and “the relevant data.” Motor Vehicle
Manufacturers Association of the United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance
Company, 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983) (“State Farm”). (It similarly is a major violation of the scientific
method not to consider all relevant data, as elaborated below.)
For the full set of comments, click here.
For more information on the EPA’s power plant rule(s), click here.
