The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it had finalized guidelines for controlling coal, weather, and water pollution from power plants, which it claims will reduce carbon emissions by 2047 despite the increase in electricity requirement.
The Environmental Protection Agency updated and finalized long-standing regulations to reduce mercury and toxic air pollutants, as well as clean up wastewater and fuel dust discharge, and tightened a plan to cut carbon emissions from existing coal and fresh gas plants.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated in a statement that “EPA is cutting waste while ensuring that energy companies can make wise opportunities and continue to deliver reliable electricity to all Americans.”
Regan had stated his intention to introduce a number of rules in 2022 to support states, utilities, and plant providers make better investment and grow retirement decisions.
The new regulations are in place as electric utilities prepare for a rise in demand from data centers that power conceptual AI and the expansion of electric vehicles.
According to White House environment advisor Ali Zaidi, the United States is expected to increase its energy generation capacity this year over the previous two decades, with 96 % of that number being clear.
The EPA’s elimination of gas as the “best method of emissions reduction” for fuel plants in order to meet new standards is one of the changes to the carbon rule.
CO2 record and sequestration (CCS) are currently only used in the most recent coal-fired, gas turbines, and other older gas turbine that operate more than 40 % of the time. The EPA first suggested that the criteria apply to plants that operate more than 50 % of the time.
The last rule also states that coal plants that intend to operate after 2039 will be required to fit CCS technology beginning in 2032. It had originally suggested requiring Lng for flowers that will operate after 2040.
The Edison Electric Institute, an trader- owned energy industry group, said it appreciated EPA’s view of bundling the different pollutants rules to ease conformity, but was disappointed the company did n’t follow its concerns around CCS viability.
“CCS is not yet ready for full- scale, economy- wide deployment, nor is there sufficient time to permit, finance, and build the CCS infrastructure needed for compliance by 2032”, EEI President Dan Brouillette said.
Regan told reporters the agency was confident in the technology, which has been bolstered by Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives, and support from “multiple power companies”.
Additionally, the organization announced that a process has been launched to gather feedback on how to reduce carbon emissions from current gas plants. Last month, the EPA removed existing gas plants from its initial proposal and set no new deadlines for developing a rule to apply to the current fleet.
The EPA also finalized measures to end 660 million pounds of pollution discharged into U.S. waterways and protect communities from coal ash contamination by lowering mercury emissions limits for lignite coal plants by 70 % and emissions limits associated with toxic metals by 67 %, the first update of that rule since 2012.
The administration’s goal of net-zero emissions in the sector by 2035 was further aided by environmental groups who praised the rules for lowering power sector emissions alongside the IRA.
The Natural Resources Defense Council’s President, Manish Bapna, declared that” the era of unbridled climate pollution from power plants is over.”
Senate environment committee member Shelley Moore Capito, a top Republican, announced her intention to introduce a resolution to overturn the rules.
President Biden “has inexplicably doubled down on his plans to shut down the backbone of America’s electric grid through unachievable regulatory mandates,” she said.
