EPA respects rule of law, repeals greenhouse gas emissions regulations for power plants

The EPA has released the pre-publication version of its “partial” repeal of Biden administration power plant greenhouse gas emission standards. Those standards threatened to drive down existing US coal generation 89 percent below the baseline projection by 2045 and kill off the future of new natural gas baseload generation. CEI energy policy experts praised the administration’s efforts, especially as Congress never gave the agency authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Daren Bakst, director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment:

The Biden EPA tried to use the Clean Air Act as a weapon to kill the coal industry and new natural gas plants. Their ‘Blackout Plan’ imposed requirements that the agency recognized would radically transform the electricity grid. In other words, once again, the EPA was trying to unlawfully act like the nation’s grid manager, shifting our nation from reliable electricity sources, like coal and natural gas, to unreliable sources, like wind and solar.

The Trump EPA is stopping this abuse with its new final rule. This rule isn’t just important to address agency overreach. It will also help to address affordability concerns and make sure the lights turn on when Americans flick on the power switch.

More important, the EPA proposed a supplemental rule as well, which will help the agency get more feedback on why Section 111 of the Clean Air Act doesn’t authorize any regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Congress never intended for the EPA to be an economic planning agency with the power to radically restructure entire industries and impose severe harm on American freedom and well-being. Yet this is exactly what the regulation of greenhouse emissions from power plants does.

Marlo Lewis, CEI senior fellow:

This is fantastic news. The ‘partial’ repeal rule is way better than it sounds. The rule gets rid of every Biden EPA requirement that would make fossil-generation uneconomic or infeasible.

Once it takes effect (60 days after publication in the Federal Register), the rule will repeal the following Biden EPA requirements:

• Long-term coal generation (units operating on or after January 1, 2039) must implement 90-percent carbon capture and storage (CCS) by 2032;
• Mid-term coal power plants (units operating in 2032 but retiring before 2039) must co-fire with 40 percent natural gas;
• A coal unit undertaking large modification (a physical or operational change increasing the plant’s hourly CO2 emission rate by 10 percent) must implement 90-percent CCS; and,
• A new baseload natural gas combustion turbine must implement 90-percent carbon capture by January 1, 2032.

CEI experts note the rule is partial in that it leaves intact the current energy efficiency standards for new and reconstructed baseload combustion turbines, which are unnecessary but do not cripple investment in new gas generation. Moreover, EPA is not done. In a separate action also published today, the EPA is issuing a supplemental proposal soliciting comment on additional reasons to rescind all GHG emission requirements for fossil fuel-fired EGUs.