JUNEAU -- Two months after retiring from a job at the state's only active coal mine, an Alaska House member is sponsoring a bill to give the Legislature veto power over the state's plan to comply with proposed federal rules aimed at cutting carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Rep. Dave Talerico, R-Healy, the co-chair of the House Resources Committee, on Friday introduced a measure that declares the federal Environmental Protection Agency's rules unconstitutional. And it forbids the administration of Gov. Bill Walker to submit the state's compliance plan to the federal government until it's been approved by the Legislature.
Talerico, who's in his first term, reported between $100,000 and $200,000 in income last year from his job as Usibelli Coal Mine's human resources and safety director. He also collected $2,150 in campaign contributions from individuals associated with the company and his family and the Usibelli family are connected by marriage -- his niece is Joe Usibelli's wife, he said.
The legislation proposed by Talerico -- and a similar measure introduced by Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage -- fit into a national push by conservative groups to stymie the federal carbon emissions rules. They argue that tighter emissions standards would hurt both businesses and consumers, potentially increasing energy costs and decreasing reliability.
Coal-fired plants are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases that scientists say contribute to global warming and climate change.
The U.S. Senate's majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., published an opinion piece Wednesday urging states to reject the federal rules. And the Alaska branch of Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative group that receives funding from the libertarian billionaire Koch brothers, has urged state lawmakers to sponsor a template bill that would give the Legislature approval power over Alaska's emissions reduction plan.
Americans for Prosperity's Alaska state director, Jeremy Price, said in a phone interview Friday that the group had approached Talerico "early on" about the federal rules, and the group subsequently thanked the legislator for introducing his bill in a post from its Twitter account.
In an interview Friday, Talerico initially insisted that he hadn't met with Americans for Prosperity on the issue and said his interest in his bill stemmed from concerns from the state's power producers about the federal regulations.
A staff member subsequently clarified that Talerico had, in fact, met with the group along with other lawmakers and discussed the rules before the start of the legislative session in January.
Asked about the potential for his bill to impact the Usibelli mine, Talerico responded: "I think anybody that has a meter on their house and has electricity could be impacted by this."
The new federal emissions rules were proposed by President Barack Obama's administration last summer. They aim to cut power plants' carbon pollution by 30 percent nationwide by 2030, using 2005 as a baseline.
The EPA says power plants account for about one-third of U.S greenhouse gas emissions, and that the cuts are needed to protect the environment from climate change. It also says the emissions reductions would avert thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks in children.
Under the EPA's proposed framework, which is expected to become final this summer, the federal government sets emissions targets for individual states. Regulators in each state are then responsible for drafting their own plans to hit their targets.
The EPA's preliminary target set for Alaska was a 26 percent emissions cut from 2012 levels, said Alice Edwards, the air quality division director at the state's Department of Environmental Conservation. But she added that the state, in its comments to the EPA, said Alaska should be considered for a complete exemption from the new rules.
"We don't have a robust, interconnected grid like in most other states," Edwards said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of differences that we think EPA should be considering."
Along with other states, Alaska has also intervened in support of a lawsuit challenging the EPA's authority to issue the new rule.
The suit was filed last year by Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the country. A spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law said the state began its involvement under the previous governor, Sean Parnell, but was granted intervenor status in the case after Walker was sworn in in December.
Around the country, at least 12 legislatures have introduced similar legislation to slow their states' compliance with the new EPA rules, and measures have already passed in Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Kentucky's measure was reportedly based on a template bill supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group with backing from coal and oil companies.
EPA officials have said they will apply federal "model rules" to states that don't submit their own emissions reduction plans.
The EPA's proposal would only affect five large power plants in Alaska, all between Homer and Fairbanks, said Edwards, the state's air quality director.
Just one, in Talerico's community of Healy, is a coal-fired plant. It's ultimately expected to close if the EPA's proposed rules are finalized, a member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, Norman Rokeberg, said in documents submitted to the Legislature earlier this year.
Pamela Miller, the executive director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics, said it was "plain wrong and not in the best interests of Alaskans" for Talerico to introduce his legislation given his ties to the Usibelli mine.
"I don't think he's far enough removed from Usibelli to introduce something like this, that's clearly benefiting Usibelli," said Miller, who has worked on a clean air campaign in Fairbanks. "This is just another example of legislators acting on behalf of corporations rather than Alaska citizens."
The state's legislative ethics act requires lawmakers to conduct public business in a way that avoids conflicts, "or even the appearance of conflicts."
House Speaker Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, referred Talerico's bill back to Talerico's own resources committee during a floor session Friday. Later, Chenault said in an interview that he would suggest that Talerico declare a potential conflict when the committee considers the bill.
But Chenault added that he wasn't familiar enough with the measure to say whether Talerico should recuse himself completely.
Chenault downplayed the importance of Talerico's relationship to the coal mine, saying his bill was no different than if an attorney or an accountant had proposed legislation affecting their industries.
"You can find a conflict anywhere if you're looking for one," Chenault said.
This story has been updated to reflect this correction: The original story mischaracterized a statement from Rep. Dave Talerico, R-Healy, about a meeting he had with Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that supports his bill challenging new emissions rules for coal-fired power plants. Talerico initially denied meeting with the group to discuss the federal rules related to carbon emissions, though he later acknowledged discussing the issue with the group. He did not deny meeting with the group altogether, as the story said.