Holy Capitalism

C. Proposed EPA Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Standard for New Power Plants Consistent with the U. S. Supreme Court's decision in 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that greenhouse gas (CO2) pollution threatens Americans' health and welfare by leading to long lasting changes in our climate. These changes can have a range of negative effects on human health and the environment. On March 27, 2012, EPA proposed a CO2 pollution standard on the construction of new power plants. The new standard does not apply to plants currently operating or new permitted plants that begin construction over the next 12 months. The standard would be flexible and would minimize CO2 pollution through the deployment of the same types of modern technologies nationwide currently employed in new power plant construction today. For the purpose of this standard, the proposed rule would apply only to NEW fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs) larger than 25 megawatts (MW). New plants can choose to burn any fossil fuel to generate electricity for sale, including natural gas as well as coal with the appropriate technologies that reduce CO2 emissions. The EPA is proposing that new fossil fuel power plants meet an output-based standard of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour (lb CO2/MWh gross). Clearly, natural gas power plants could meet this standard without any high-cost plant pollution equipment. Coal power plants, however, would be essentially prohibited due to the requirement for new CO2 pollution equipment. However, a new coal plant could still be built if it employed technology to reduce CO2 emissions to meet the standard, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). New coal plants employing CCS would have the option to use a 30-year average of CO2 emissions to meet the proposed standard, rather than meeting the annual standard each year. a) coal plants that install and operate CCS immediately would have the flexibility to emit more CO2 in the early years, as they learn how to best optimize the controls. b) a utility could build a coal power plant and add CCS later,I.e., a new coal plant could be built and emit more CO2 for the first 10 years then emit less CO2 for the next 20 years, as long as the average of those emissions meet the standard. c) CSS technology is expected to become more widely available, which should lead to lower costs and improved performance over time. EPA's proposed standard reflects the ongoing trend in the power sector to build cleaner plants, including new, clean burning, efficient natural gas generation, which is already the fuel of choice for most new and planned power plants. At the same time, the standard creates a path forward for new technologies to be developed at future facilities that would allow utilities to burn coal, while emitting less CO2 pollution. New natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant units should be able to meet the proposed standard without add-on controls. In fact, EPA estimates that 95% of the NGCC plants built since 2005 would meet the standard. New power plants that are designed to burn coal would be able to incorporate technology to reduce CO2 emissions to meet the standard, such as CCS. Nationwide, states like Washington, Oregon and California, currently limit CO2 emissions. Other states, like Montana and Illinois, currently require CCS for new coal-fired power plants. EPA also believes the standard allows flexibility to allow utilities to phase-in over tine technology to reduce CO2. And EPA suggests that the standard is fully compatible with current utility industry investment patterns resulting in cost containment for compliance. Thus, while it will be highly restrictive, expensive and time consuming due to the permitting process to build new coal plants in the future, it will not be entirely prohibited by the imposition of this EPA standard.