The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday will propose one of its most highly anticipated climate rules to date, compelling nearly all US power plants that generate the nation’s electricity to capture or otherwise slash their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions.
The rules would apply to the nation’s fleet of existing and new power plants that run on coal and natural gas – two major fossil fuels, which are the root cause of the climate crisis. The Biden administration’s proposal would push utilities to outfit many power plants with costly carbon capture technology or add clean hydrogen fuel to reduce their emissions.
Unlike the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which faced fierce opposition that rose to the Supreme Court, the proposed rules will leave it to individual utilities to choose how to meet the emissions standards – which will ultimately be implemented and enforced by individual states, EPA officials said. Some power plants that are slated to close in the next few years may not have to meet the new requirements.
Between 2028 and 2042, the EPA estimated the rules would cut about 617 million metric tons of carbon pollution from existing coal and new gas plants. In addition, the agency estimates the rules will cut between 214 and 407 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from existing gas plants.
EPA and White House officials said the proposed rules would help meet President Joe Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035, while only marginally raising costs for the nation’s ratepayers. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said his agency estimated that while baseline electricity costs would go up 2% by 2030, they would rise just 0.08% further by 2040.
“We believe that where we will end up will be squarely in line with the President’s goal,” Regan told reporters. “We’re looking at a negligible impact on electricity…
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