EPA Proposes New Power Plant Rules

The EPA is proposing Clean Air Act emission limits and guidelines for carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel-fired power plants based on cost-effective and available control technologies. Comment Now

The proposals would set limits for new gas-fired combustion turbines, existing coal, oil and gas-fired steam generating units, and certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines.

According to the EPA:

The proposal for coal and new natural gas power plants would avoid up to 617 million metric tons of total carbon dioxide (CO2) through 2042, which is equivalent to reducing the annual emissions of 137 million passenger vehicles, roughly half the cars in the United States. Through 2042, EPA estimates the net climate and health benefits of the standards on new gas and existing coal-fired power plants are up to $85 billion.The proposals would also result in cutting tens of thousands of tons of particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide, harmful air pollutants that are known to endanger people’s health, especially in communities that for too long have disproportionally shouldered the burden of high pollution and environmental injustice. In 2030 alone, the proposed standards would prevent:

• approximately 1,300 premature deaths;
• more than 800 hospital and emergency room visits;
• more than 300,000 cases of asthma attacks;
• 38,000 school absence days;
• 66,000 lost workdays.

Written comments to the EPA must be received on or before August 8, 2023. Comment Now

• To read the proposed rule, Click Here

For and Against

Those in Favor 

“By proposing new standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants, EPA is delivering on its mission to reduce harmful pollution that threatens people’s health and wellbeing,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan

• EPA Press Release, Click Here

Those Against 

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement rebuking President Biden’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed power plant rules, which she claims risk more blackouts and energy shortages for Americans.“President Biden’s rush-to-green agenda is shutting down American energy and threatening the security and reliability of our electric grid. We're currently witnessing an electricity reliability crisis unfolding across the country. We’ve seen recurring summer blackouts in California and the shuttering of reliable baseload power sources in the Midwest and New England, which have resulted in winter energy shortages. The latest power plant rules being proposed by the EPA will make these problems worse by shutting down reliable energy sources prematurely and adding costly new burdens on sources like natural gas, which is responsible for a significant portion of our emissions reductions. The EPA must abandon these dangerous efforts to force an energy transition on Americans, which will jeopardize the reliability of our power grid and shut down American energy.”

Both Sen. Shelley Capito (R-WV) and Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) criticized President Joe Biden, who set a goal during the first year of his presidency in 2021 of cutting greenhouse emissions in the U.S. by between 50% and 52% of 2005 levels by 2030.

“With its Clean Power Plan 2.0, the Biden administration has made it quite clear they intend to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, put the people who help power our nation out of work, and increase energy costs for millions of Americans,” said Capito,

“In the face of this illegal overreach, we are standing up for workers and families in energy-producing communities across the country, including those in West Virginia.”“The Environment Protection Agency has overstepped their role and is waging war on power plants across the United States,” Miller said. “The Biden administration and Washington Democrats continue to shut down domestic energy production in the name of their Green New Deal agenda while the United States should be focused on maintaining its energy dominance. West Virginia will not stand for this spineless, and frankly, ridiculous rule.”

Submission of Public Comments:

• Comments must be received on or before August 8, 2023.
• EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072.

Online: Environmental Protection Agency

Mail:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center, Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2023– 0072, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460.