Reports: EPA to propose strongest emission limits yet for coal- and gas-fired power plants
Emissions

Reports: EPA to propose strongest emission limits yet for coal- and gas-fired power plants

The proposal would focus on deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, published reports said.

The Biden Administration is expected to propose stringent requirements on utilities to reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fired power plants, according to multiple published reports.

The proposal would be a transformational approach from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on how the country generates electricity, introducing the strictest regulations on plants in U.S. history.

It is also expected to plunge the Administration into political and legal fights, many of which could make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled last June the EPA could not put state-level caps on CO2 by steering states away from carbon-emitting fuel sources like coal and natural gas. That directive would have to come from Congress.

Politico quoted people familiar with the expected proposals that the rules would require generators to capture most of their carbon emissions rather than letting them enter the atmosphere.

Sources told the news site a large factor in the proposal is the deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage technology (CCUS). No U.S. commercial power plants use CCUS, but Biden’s EPA views it as ready to be used widely, according to the sources.

Although carbon capture hasn’t been widely deployed, some environmentalists say it has been adequately demonstrated during testing and that plants can retrofit with the technology to reduce emissions. Expanded incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) expect to dramatically bring down the cost of CCUS, providing companies $85 for every ton of captured CO2 through the 45Q tax credit, up from $50 a ton.

EPA could release the two power plant rules near the end of the week, according to the Politico report. One rule would target existing coal- and natural-gas-fired plants, and the other would address new gas plants.

The new draft rules would require new gas plants to employ carbon capture more quickly than originally hinted by the EPA, according to the Politico report. These plants would be given a schedule by which they must begin using carbon capture systems or meet an alternative standard based on hydrogen.

The largest facilities would be required to make the deepest, earliest cuts to their carbon emissions, according to one person briefed by EPA.

But not every coal- and gas-fired power plant would have to meet the strictest standards under the proposed rules. For example, coal plants that are scheduled to retire and gas plants that run at times of peak demand would face more relaxed mandates.

One source told Politico the rules could be postponed until May. EPA did not immediately respond to the publication’s requests for comment.

The Biden Administration aims to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade and to have an emissions-free power sector by 2035.