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After years of study, the EPA will finally release their initial greenhouse gas emissions rules for power plants, which are likely to end the construction of any coal-fired plants from this point forward.
The proposed rule — years in the making and approved by the White House after months of review — will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.
Industry officials and environmentalists said in interviews that the rule, which comes on the heels of tough new requirements that the Obama administration imposed on mercury emissions and cross-state pollution from utilities within the past year, dooms any proposal to build a coal-fired plant that does not have costly carbon controls.
“This standard effectively bans new coal plants,” said Joseph Stanko, who heads government relations at the law firm Hunton and Williams and represents several utility companies. “So I don’t see how that is an ‘all of the above’ energy policy.”
I don’t see how coal is “cheap energy.” Pollutants from coal caused a public health crisis and hundreds of thousands if not millions of preventable illnesses and deaths. No coal executive ever paid a dime for that. If they have the technology to create “clean coal” and get under the emissions limits, they can deploy it. They might have to – gasp! – pay for their own research and development to make that happen. It would be a small price to pay in exchange for all the externality costs everyone else has picked up over the years.
But if they can’t do it, if they can’t make the technology work, new coal plants will just have to not exist. Existing coal plants and plants already in the permitting process are exempt from the rules, which means that plenty of coal will get burned in the next several years. Anyway, we’re at the end of the coal era. Natural gas has overtaken it as the cheap source of American energy. Very few new coal plants are in the works, and absent some miraculous technology you won’t see any again once the New Source Performance Standard (the name for the rule) is fully operational. That won’t happen until years into the future, as power plants have long lead times.
Dave Roberts has an important list of five things you need to know about the new rule. This is not a substitute for carbon legislation in Congress. But it does help to rid the nation of the scourge of dirty coal. Now the EPA needs to come out with their existing plant rule, which will put some real limits on carbon emissions from electricity once and for all.
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This issue needs to be addressed, too:
Court Reverses E.P.A. On Big Mining Project
“In taking the rare step of revoking the permit, granted in 2007 by the Bush administration, the E.P.A. said that mining would have done unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities. The mine, owned by Arch Coal of St. Louis, would have buried hundreds of miles of streams under tons of residue.
“The agency said at the time it was using its authority under the Clean Water Act to rescind a legally issued permit, an action it had taken only twice in 40 years and never for a coal mine.
“Judge Jackson [an Obama nominee] said the action was “a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself” that the law did not support.”
LINK.
Nope. The End of EPA.
Remember all this stuff is just election buildup pandering to D base. After election, will all be reversed, ignored, etc.
But wait. What about clean coal?! /s
why does that need to be addressed?
Agreed. Watch how quickly congress reins in the EPA in this area. We may have to wait until after the election, as Obama is still pretending he a progressive.
Boxturtle (Looks like Sen Byrds grave has been disturbed. And there are foot prints heading toward DC)
Meh, at least on the East coast many of the coal mines don’t even belong to America any longer. My husband works for the railroad and they spend alot of time getting the coal to ship it overseas. So if you think the fact that we won’t utilize it here means the industry is over then you should rethink that.
You mean Obama’s baby? They’ll just coin a new terminology that doesn’t contain the word “coal” and keep on poisoning us. They’ll probably hire Frank Luntz to create it.
Cheap = “don’t look at the externalities”
The Proposed Rule (PDF, 257pp). This is a pre-publication version. Waiting for the rule to hit the Federal Register and Regulaitions.gov.
The standard: fossil fuel generating plants over 25MWe must meet a standard of 1000 lbs CO2 per megawatt-hour. Coal-fired plants can meet this standard by carbon-capture-and-storage.
This puts the pressure on electric utilities to convert to natural-gas-fired plants or install CCS equipment. It doesn’t ban new coal plants, just new coal plants without workable CCS equipment. Stanko’s comment is a clear tell that what he’s been selling — “clean coal” is a hoax.
The shift is on to natural gas. That’s why energy companies have been rushing to get favorable fracking laws in states that have never known it before, like North Carolina.
No, the Republicans are going to gut the EPA, as soon as they have the power, as well as the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. They are very clear as to their intentions. As Grover Norquist said, they only need someone that can use a pen to sign their bills.
So we can have regulations that will prevent “unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities”, including burying “hundreds of miles of streams under tons of residue.”