The EPA wants to eliminate climate pollution from power plants

Environmental Protection Agency regulations could lead the way to a cleaner future: The role of fossil fuels and fossil fuel-fired power plants in public comment on climate change

The White House states that Burning oil at the location would emit about 280 million tons of carbon dioxide. By 2055, the new rules would have reduced emissions by 15 billion tons. The inflation reduction act is projected to cut emissions by billions of tons.

That could put the nation on track to meet Mr. Biden’s pledge that the United States would cut its greenhouse gases in half by 2030 and stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by 2050, although analysts point out that more policies will need to be enacted to reach the latter target.

Climate scientists say it is necessary to limit warming to 1.5 Celsius over pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Global average temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degrees.

The regulations from the E.P.A are part of the puzzle that is needed to steer this ocean liner away from the worst climate disaster.

Coal and gas-fired power plants would have to eliminate nearly all their climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions in just a little over a decade, under proposed regulations issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency.

For more than a century, those plants have been emitting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. If these proposed regulations are finalized, they would come close to putting a stop to that practice.

The rules are expected to be challenged in court by the fossil fuel industry and its allies.

“EPA’s proposal relies on proven, readily available technologies to limit carbon pollution and seizes the momentum already underway in the power sector to move toward a cleaner future,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.

The regulation would bring health benefits by reducing air pollutants such as particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. The EPA projects that in 2030, the proposed rules would prevent 1,300 premature deaths, more than 800 hospital and emergency room visits and more than 300,000 cases of asthma attacks. The agency values the health benefits of the rules at up to $85 billion, and acknowledges that the rule could increase electricity prices by a negligible amount.

According to the Supreme Court’s landmark 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA decision, the EPA is required to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

“It told EPA some things it could not do, but it also told EPA the path that’s open, under the law,” says David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Still, the coal industry may have the most to lose under this proposal. The Sierra Club says there are 158 coal power plants. Despite the EPA’s analysis, the National Mining Association does not think carbon capture technology is fully economically demonstrated. The organization called for a “carbon capture moonshot.”

Even before the proposed rules were announced, some of it came from within President Biden’s own party.

The administration has made it known that they are bent on banning coal and gas-fired power plants from being in existence, according to Sen. Joe Manchin. In addition to representing a state where coal remains a powerful business, Manchin’s family owns a coal company. Manchin said he would oppose the Biden administration’s EPA nominees until the White House halts “their government overreach.”

Coal is a major industry in West Virginia and preservation is a priority for a lot of people there. State regulators recently approved a $3 million per month surcharge on customers’ bills to keep a coal plant from shutting down at the end of May. Customers will pay the subsidy even if the plant doesn’t generate electricity, though it will keep the facility’s 146 employees on the payroll.

Patrick Morrisey is a candidate for governor of West Virginia and he has led a legal challenge against the Clean Power Plan. He’s expected to lead a similar legal challenge to these rules, once they are finalized next year.

The regulations also could face opposition from the natural gas industry, which has sought to preserve its role in electricity generation. The American Petroleum Institute asked the EPA to consider the essential role gas-fired generators will continue to play in comparison to renewable energy.

A future administration could change the regulation even if the court challenge succeeds. In 2019 former President Trump replaced the Obama-era Clean Power Plan with his much weaker Affordable Clean Energy rule. That means these rules likely will become an issue in the upcoming 2024 presidential election campaign.