All coal facilities and large, frequently used gas-fired plants will need to reduce or capture virtually all of their carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency
With its most ambitious effort to date, the Biden administration proposed additional restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, the country's second-largest source of global warming pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a rule that might compel power plants to collect smokestack pollutants using a technology that has long been promised but isn't often employed in the US.
If adopted, the proposed regulation would be the first time the federal government has limited carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which are second only to the transportation sector in the United States in terms of their contribution to greenhouse gas pollution at around 25%. The rule would also apply to future power plants and, according to the EPA, would save up to 617 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released through the year 2042, which is the same as the yearly emissions of 137 million passenger vehicles.
By 2038, the EPA stated that nearly all coal facilities as well as big, regularly used gas-fired plants will have to reduce or capture nearly all of their carbon dioxide emissions. Plants that can't fulfill the new requirements will have to be shut down.
State governments with a Republican slant and business associations are likely to oppose the initiative. They claim that the Democratic administration has overstepped its bounds with regard to environmental rules and foresee an impending crisis in the electrical grid's dependability. The power plant rule is one of at least a dozen EPA regulations that set limits on wastewater treatment and power plant emissions.
About 20% of the country's electricity comes from coal, down from about 45% in 2010. About 40% of the electricity in the US is generated by natural gas. Nuclear energy and renewable sources, including wind, solar, and hydropower, supply the remaining energy.
Environmental organisations applauded the EPA's decision as urgently required to protect against the disastrous effects of climate change, from worsening wildfires to increasingly severe flooding, hurricanes, and droughts. The EPA rule would not require the use of costly and underdeveloped equipment to absorb and store carbon emissions. As an alternative, the government would impose carbon dioxide pollution limits on plant operators.
Although particular actions would be left to the business, certain natural gas facilities might begin combining gas with another fuel source, like hydrogen, which does not release carbon.
The policy is anticipated to increase the use of carbon capture technology, which the EPA stated had "adequately demonstrated" its ability to reduce pollution. Despite years of study, there are only a few initiatives active throughout the nation.
The viability of carbon capture and storage as a means of reducing the xide pollution that plant operators would be required to deal with has been questioned by groups on both political extremes.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 3,400 coal and gas-fired power plants in the country produced almost 60% of the electricity used in the country last year.
The idea comes months after Biden announced guidelines to stop methane leaks from oil and gas wells and weeks after the administration unveiled severe new tailpipe pollution restrictions that would require up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032.
The regulations follow the 2021 infrastructure law's commitment to addressing climate change as well as the Inflation Reduction Act's billions in tax credits and other incentives that were enacted last year.
Even though Biden has prioritised combating global warming, he has come under fire from environmentalists, particularly young climate campaigners, over his recent decision to allow the controversial Willow oil project in Alaska. On Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope, ConocoPhillips' enormous drilling project might yield up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day. Environmental organisations have launched a social media #StopWillow campaign and refer to Willow as a "carbon bomb".
The EPA declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases impair human health fourteen years prior to the release of the new plan. President Barack Obama attempted to regulate carbon emissions from American power plants in 2015, but the Supreme Court rejected his Clean Power Plan, which was later undone by President Donald Trump.