The rules include a proposal to implement hydrogen co-firing and carbon capture and sequestration/storage technologies in power plants.
The Biden administration has finalized an array of new regulations on fossil-fuel-fired power plants, including a rule requiring many power plants to prevent the release of 90 percent of their carbon emissions.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key actions to build on this momentum and deliver clean electricity to more homes and businesses, helping lower energy costs for American families and power the U.S. manufacturing renaissance driven by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, while providing cleaner air and water to communities long overburdened by pollution from fossil fuel power plants,” the White House
said on April 25.
The new carbon emission regulations,
announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), specifically call for fossil fuel plants to cut their carbon emissions and reduce other air and water pollutants.
The new carbon emissions rule proposes implementing hydrogen co-firing and carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS) technologies in power plants.
Co-firing, or burning hydrogen fuel alongside another fuel source, is seen as a means of reducing the overall amount of carbon emissions from a fossil-fuel-fired plant. CCS technologies separate carbon dioxide from factory emissions and divert them down into underground geological formations to prevent their release into the atmosphere.
The EPA said its proposal for implementing these carbon-reducing technologies “will significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing coal-fired power plants and from new natural gas turbines, ensuring that all long-term coal-fired plants and base load new gas-fired plants control 90 [percent] of their carbon pollution.”
The EPA projected that these new controls on power plant carbon emissions will cause a reduction of 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 328 million gasoline cars, or nearly an entire year of emissions from the entire U.S. electric power sector. The EPA projected that these controls will also save up to $370 billion in climate and public health net benefits over the next two decades.
The new EPA rules also call for a reduction of the existing mercury emissions limit by 70 percent for lignite-fired plants and the emissions limit for toxic metals by 67 percent for all coal plants. It also calls for the implementation of systems for real-time emissions monitoring.
Another EPA rule announced on April 25 calls for strengthened wastewater discharge standards. The agency projected that these revised standards would reduce the amount of pollutants flowing from coal plants into the nation’s waterways each year by 660 million pounds.
“Today, EPA is proud to make good on the Biden-Harris Administration’s vision to tackle climate change and to protect all communities from pollution in our air, water, and in our neighborhoods,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said on April 25.
Biden Admin Continues Environmental Campaign
The finalization of these new EPA rules on fossil-fuel-fired power plants comes on the heels of other new rulemaking announcements focused on reducing the extraction of fossil fuels and limiting their use.On April 12, the Department of the Interior and its subordinate, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
announced a revised fee schedule that raises the costs for operating oil and gas leases on federal lands. The following week, the Interior Department and BLM announced rules
barring new oil and gas drilling and infrastructure development on more than 13 million acres of federal land in the western Arctic region.
Those earlier rounds of regulations earned plaudits from environmental advocacy groups. Those environmental groups continued their praise after the finalization of the new power plant regulations.
“We applaud the Biden administration for taking historic action to protect public health and advance climate progress. Coal and gas plants are among the worst contributors to climate change and toxic air and water pollution,” EarthJustice president Abbie Dillen said on April 25. “The new standards announced today will dramatically reduce climate pollution while ensuring millions of people will have cleaner, safer air and water.” Brooke Alexander, clean energy organizing manager for Sierra Club’s Florida Chapter,
said, “It’s incredibly encouraging to see the Biden Administration unveil a strategy to drastically cut carbon pollution, marking a historic moment for clean energy in the United States.”
But while environmental groups praised the new regulations, the move sparked disapproval among fossil fuel industry allies.
“With the latest iteration of the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0 announced today, President Biden has inexplicably doubled down on his plans to shut down the backbone of America’s electric grid through unachievable regulatory mandates,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
said on April 25.
Coal mining is a large part of West Virginia’s economy and a major source of employment in the state.
“It is obvious that the ultimate goal of these EPA regulations is to stop the use of fossil fuels to produce reliable energy in the United States by forcing the premature closure of coal plants and blocking new natural gas plants,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee,
said in response to the new regulations.
Announcing the now-finalized rules last year, Mr. Regan denied that the new regulations were aimed at shutting down the coal sector, but he acknowledged in proposing the power plant rule last year that “we will see some coal retirements.”
National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan argued the new EPA regulations could undermine reliable sources of U.S. energy production. He
said the Biden administration has “refused to account for irrefutable evidence that electricity demand is soaring, disregarded validated reliability warnings from grid experts related to coal plant closures, and ignored the basic fact that there is no adequate replacement ready to replace the sorely needed, dispatchable generating capacity coal provides once it is shuttered.”
Mr. Nolan vowed that his industry association would challenge the new regulations, up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
