Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) officials are still reviewing the clean power plan unveiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 2 to determine exactly how it will affect the Cholla Power Plant at Joseph City.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to review them closely,” APS spokesman Steven Gotfried said on the day that the proposed rules were released.

He noted that the complete proposal is 665 pages long and it will take some time to determine all the implications for APS. The new rules are designed specifically to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power generating stations. They are considered a key part of President Obama’s climate action plan.

Under the proposal, which will not be finalized for at least a year, carbon emissions will be drastically reduced by 2030. A report from the EPA notes that the plan will “cut carbon emission from the power sector by 30 percent nationwide below 2005 levels, which is equal to the emissions from powering more than half the homes in the United States for one year; and cut particle pollution, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide by more than 25 percent as a co-benefit.”

According to fact sheet provided by the White House titled Overview of the Clean Power Plan, the proposal will also “put Americans to work making the U.S. electricity system less polluting and our homes and businesses more efficient, shrinking electricity bills by roughly eight percent in 2030.” The fact sheet also notes, “The Clean Power Plan puts states in the driver’s seat to a cleaner, more efficient power fleet of the future by giving them the flexibility to choose how to meet their goals.”

APS had already announced in March that there could be potential changes at Cholla Power Plant, depending on the EPA’s final version of the rules. At that time the company informed employees that several options were being considered for the future of the plant.

APS spokesman Damon Gross noted then, “We’ve informed employees there that we’re evaluating different scenarios for the plant. When a decision has been made, first we’ll tell the employees, and then we’ll tell you (The Tribune-News) so you can distribute the information to the entire community.”

The company has already spent more than $350 million on environmental upgrades at Cholla. Those upgrades were intended to meet new regulations, but since that time the “war on coal” has intensified with even stricter regulations.

Gotfried noted that APS has been working to reduce emissions for years and by 2008 had reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 2.1 million tons.

“We’re committed to environmental stewardship,” he said.

He expected that within about a week, APS would be ready to comment on the potential ramifications of the EPA proposal.

“We’ve just got to read it and see what it says,” he said. “It would be premature to say anything at this point.”

The EPA will be accepting public comments on the proposal for 120 days. A copy of the full Climate Action Plan proposal, fact sheets and instructions on submitting comments are available at the agency’s website at www.epa.gov.