EPA requires existing coal-fired power plants that plan to operate beyond 2039 and large new gas-fired power plants to achieve 90% reductions in GHG emissions by 2032.
On April 25, 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced final greenhouse gas emission (GHG) control requirements for existing coal-fired and new or substantially modified gas-fired power plants (the "Final Rule"). The Final Rule complements EPA measures also announced the same day to reduce other environmental impacts associated with fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States.1 The Final Rule will enter into force 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.
EPA finalized several regulations under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act that address GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units, including:
- Establishment of emission guidelines for existing coal-fired power plants based on the implementation of carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS) technology operating at a 90% capture efficiency rate;
- Revisions to the New Source Performance Standards for new or substantially modified natural gas-fired power plants based on the use of more efficient fuels, simple cycle operation, and CCS; and
- Repealing of the Affordable Clean Energy rule promulgated under the prior presidential administration.
In addition to GHG emission standards, EPA finalized three rules updating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule, effluent limitations guidelines and standards for wastewater discharges from steam electric power plants, and rules governing the storage and disposal of coal combustion residuals.2
The Final Rule requires existing coal-fired power plants that plan to operate beyond 2039 and new or substantially modified gas-fired power plants to substantially reduce GHG emissions. Specifically, coal-fired plants planning to operate beyond 2039 (long-term coal power plants) and new gas-fired power plants that generate at least 40% of their maximum annual capacity (base load combustion turbines) must capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032.
Section 111 of the Clean Air Act provides EPA with authority to set emission standards for new and existing power plants based on the "best system of emission reduction" (BSER) that is adequately demonstrated, taking into account costs, energy requirements, and other health and environmental impacts.3 EPA determined that implementing CCS is the BSER for existing long-term coal power plants and new base load combustion turbines. EPA assesses the feasibility of particular technologies in determining the BSER, but emission standards are performance-based and can be achieved through any combination of technologies that become available.
The Final Rule largely tracks EPA's proposal issued in May 2023 but incorporates some changes, including several important changes to compliance deadlines. Long-term coal power plants subject to emission guidelines based on CCS implementation now have until 2032 to meet those standards, rather than 2030 as initially proposed. Coal power plants that cannot meet the standards, however, must be retired by 2039, a year earlier than originally proposed. For new gas-fired power plants, EPA abandoned performance standards based on hydrogen co-firing. EPA had also proposed including emission guidelines for existing, high-capacity gas-fired power plants, but elected to address those facilities in the future.
The Final Rule is the latest development in a policy tug-of-war spanning three presidential administrations over how the federal government may regulate GHG emissions from existing coal-fired power plants that do not undergo major modifications. The Clean Power Plan, announced by President Obama in 2015, would have set the BSER for these plants based on shifting to renewable energy sources, but that proposed rule never took effect. In 2022, the Supreme Court struck down the "generation-shifting" approach employed by the Clean Power Plan, holding that EPA lacked express congressional authorization to require such a sweeping re-ordering of the electric power industry.4 The Biden Administration's Final Rule will also likely be the subject of legal challenges and political scrutiny. Some members of congress have already discussed introducing measures under the Congressional Review Act to block the Final Rule's implementation.5
1 New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, (April 25, 2024).
2 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units Review of the Residual Risk and Technology Review (April 25, 2024); Supplemental Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category (April 25, 2024); Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities; Legacy CCR Surface Impoundments (April 25, 2024).
3 42 U.S.C. § 7411.
4 West Virginia v. EPA, 597 US 697 (2022).
5 Emma Dumain, Capito leads effort to overturn EPA power plant rule, E&E NEWS (Apr. 25, 2024), https://www.eenews.net/articles/capito-leads-effort-to-overturn-epa-power-plant-rule/.
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