WASHINGTON — President Biden’s administration is about to announce caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that could force them to trap pollution from their smokestacks, technology now used by less than 20 of the 3,400 coal — and gas-fired plants in the country, according to three people who knew about the rule.
If implemented, the proposed regulation would mark the first time the federal government has capped carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which generate about 25 percent of the planet-warming pollution produced by the United States. It would also apply to future plants.
Nearly all coal and gas-fired power plants would need to reduce or capture almost all of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, according to those familiar with the regulation, who asked not to be identified because the rule has not been made public.
The proposed rule is sure to meet opposition from the fossil fuel industry, power plant operators and their allies in Congress. It will likely bring an immediate legal challenge from a group of Republican attorneys general who have already sued the Biden administration to stop other climate policies. A future government could also weaken the regulation.
The ordinance, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, is under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget and is subject to change.
An EPA spokeswoman said the agency is “urgently pushing standards that protect people and the planet, building on the momentum of President Biden’s Investing in America economic agenda, including proposals to address carbon emissions from new and existing power plants.”
It would not mandate the use of carbon capture equipment, a nascent and expensive technology; rather, it would set pollution limits that plant operators would have to comply with. They could do this by using a different technology or, in the case of gas-fired power stations, by switching to a fuel source such as green hydrogen, which does not emit any CO2, according to the experts. But the regulation could lead to wider adoption of carbon capture technology, the people said.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, most of the electricity generated in the United States last year — about 60 percent — came from the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum.
The proposal comes on the heels of two other plans by the Biden administration to dramatically reduce tailpipe emissions by accelerating the country’s transition to electric vehicles and curbing methane leaks from oil and gas wells.
Those three regulations, if implemented as proposed, would significantly reduce the global warming pollution caused by the world’s largest economy. Together with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a bill that puts $370 billion into clean energy programs, they would put the country on track to fulfill Mr Biden’s pledge to reduce the country’s emissions by about halve and stop adding carbon dioxide. to the atmosphere in 2050.
That’s the action all major industrialized nations must take, scientists say, to prevent the global average temperature from rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels. Beyond that point, the impacts of catastrophic heat waves, floods, droughts, crop failures and species extinctions would become significantly more difficult for humanity to handle. The planet has already warmed by an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius.
Mr Biden has said he is ready to use his executive power to act on global warming, a point he recently emphasized after facing sharp criticism from environmentalists, particularly young climate activists, for his decision last month to approve a massive oil drilling project. on pristine Alaskan land known as Willow.
“We need to do more than acknowledge the climate challenges we face,” Mr Biden told other world leaders on Thursday at a virtual meeting to discuss climate and energy. “We are determined to strengthen our ambition and our actions. And yes, we are willing to do the hard work to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
By releasing a climate rule for power plants, Biden hopes to succeed where his former boss, President Barack Obama, failed. Nearly ten years ago, Mr. Obama to set broad limits on power plant pollution that were first blocked by the Supreme Court and then reversed by President Donald J. Trump. Last summer, the Supreme Court upheld that the EPA had the authority to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, but to a limited extent.
But three factors have encouraged the Biden administration. First, carbon capture technology has advanced since the Obama administration. Second, when Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, they added language that classified greenhouse gases as pollutants that must be regulated by the EPA. .
Rather than creating one limit that all power plants must meet, the EPA wants to be flexible, according to those familiar with the new plan. It plans to set different targets based on the size of the plant, whether it is running regularly or intermittently, and whether it is already scheduled to be retired. Some coal-fired plants scheduled to close in the next decade may not need to meet the new standards at all.
Patrick Morrisey, the Republican attorney general of West Virginia, a major coal-producing state, said on Friday that he and others were waiting for Mr Biden’s plan. “We are excited to review the EPA’s new proposed rule on power plants, and we will once again be ready to lead the fight against federal overreach,” he said in a statement.
Some environmental groups are also critical of carbon capture technology, arguing that it makes more sense to switch to wind, solar and other clean energy sources that don’t pollute in the first place.
Like the proposed regulations regarding tailpipe emissions and methane from oil and gas facilities, the power plant rules would be subject to a public comment period and are unlikely to be finalized and implemented until next year.
The Biden administration is rushing to implement the trio of proposed rules before Republicans have a chance to overturn them if they take control of Congress in 2024. were completed within 60 days of the previous Congress.
The crackdown on emissions from cars, oil and gas facilities and power plants comes as Biden prepares to announce his re-election bid, when he needs the young voters who helped him win the White House in 2020.
During Thursday’s virtual meeting with leaders from other major economies, Biden said he would ask for $500 million from Congress to fight deforestation in the Amazon. On Friday, he signed an executive order to create the White House Office of Environmental Justice and require every federal agency to develop plans to address the disproportionate impact of pollution and climate change on minority and tribal communities.
“Since I became president, I have literally flown thousands of acres of land burned down by wildfires due to environmental change,” he told environmentalists at a Rose Garden ceremony, where he signed the order. “I have seen too many communities shattered by increasingly frequent and intense storms. It is an existential threat to our nation and literally to the world.”
Yet electric companies have complained that any policies forcing them to install carbon capture technology would be far too expensive, driving up energy costs for consumers.
A 2021 report from a group of 600 global investors, including BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors and other top shareholders of utilities owned by US investors, states that the high cost of carbon capture “makes it a risky and potentially expensive strategy for decarbonisation”.
But some experts say the circumstances around carbon capture technology are shifting.
Once considered a boondoggle by many, the technology has matured. The Biden administration is investing billions in research and demonstration projects to take it further. And while there are only about 40 power plants with the equipment worldwide, that number is growing, albeit slowly. Calpine Corporation, one of the nation’s largest producers of electricity from natural gas, is building massive carbon capture and sequestration facilities for its power generators in Deer Park, Texas.
The Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives to accelerate adoption. The law increased existing federal tax credits for electric companies that capture their carbon dioxide pollution from $85 to $135 per ton of carbon dioxide, up from $30 to $50. That could save large energy companies hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
“To date, the energy industry has not found it economical to build,” said Carrie Jenks, executive director of Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program. “But the IRA’s incentives really cut costs and make it economically viable. We see that companies want to build.”
