A suite of new rules to dramatically slash pollution from coal and natural gas plants was unveiled by the Biden administration Thursday — and critics promptly blasted the measures as “death by a thousand cuts to America’s fossil fuel industry.”
Under the new regime, existing coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants will be mandated to capture 90% of all carbon pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency announced.
To operate plants beyond 2039, they would need to have proper carbon capture systems fulfilling those requirements by 2032, officials explained to reporters.
EPA honchos hope that the new rule, coupled with tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, will trigger innovation and push energy companies to adopt more carbon-friendly technology.
The agency also rolled out three other major rules, entailing the tightening up of emissions standards for neurotoxin mercury from coal-fired plants, reducing wastewater pollution from coal-fired plants by around 660 million pounds per year, and stronger restrictions on coal ash management.
Those new rules tap into authority from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.
Those four major rule changes pose significant hurdles for the coal industry, which contributed to roughly 16.2% of US utility-scale electricity generation in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Natural gas accounted for 43.1% of US utility-scale electricity generation that same year, per the EIA.
The agency estimates that the new rules can slash emissions by roughly 1.4 billion metric tons through 2047.
Regan previously emphasized the need for regulatory certainty so that businesses can properly plan for the future.
However, the industry was not pleased with the new slate of restrictions and questioned whether they were realistic.
“At a time of rapid energy demand growth, we need policies that harness all of America’s resources, including natural gas and renewables, to power our future economy and help ensure energy is affordable for families and businesses,” Dustin Meyer, American Petroleum Institute senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in a statement.
“We remain concerned that EPA’s final rule fails to properly consider grid reliability and the need for new natural gas plants to maintain that reliability.”
Back in 2022, the Supreme Court shot down similar Obama-era rules and some foes of the EPA’s recent crackdown are hopeful that the high court will intervene again.
Marty Durbin, senior vice president of policy at the Chamber of Commerce, blasted the administration’s “contradictory approach to energy policy.”
“With near daily reminders that electricity demand will increase exponentially – for data centers, AI, new manufacturing facilities, and the ever-increasing electrification of the economy – we are concerned the rule would significantly restrict electricity supply necessary to meet that demand,” Durbin said in a statement.
”We encourage the Administration to take a step back and develop a comprehensive, realistic approach which doesn’t undercut its own longer-term objectives.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey pledged to challenge the new EPA rules.
“The US Supreme Court has placed significant limits on what the EPA can do – we plan on ensuring that those limits are upheld, and we expect that we will once again prevail in court against this out-of-control agency,” Morrisey said in a statement.
One of the president’s most critical Democrats in the Senate, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) bristled at the move.
“Their goal is simple: Death by a thousand cuts to America’s fossil fuel industry, especially coal,” Manchin fumed. “If the goal was truly to reduce emissions, the administration would be doing everything it can to deploy carbon capture and hydrogen and help the fossil industry continue to produce cleaner energy.”
“But instead, the radical climate advisors at the White House and EPA have allowed over 120 permits for carbon sequestration wells to sit idle and put up roadblocks to deploying clean hydrogen which can help plants reduce emissions.”
Coal fired-plants accounted for nearly 89% of West Virginia’s electricity in 2022, per the EIA.
Climate activists, meanwhile were elated.
“The new EPA rules are one of the biggest moves the Biden admin has made to move off fossil fuels. A huge win for tens of thousands of people who have campaigned for this kind of action,” the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots climate change activist group, said.
Ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, President Biden has sought to cast himself as a champion in the fight to combat climate change by taking actions such as pulling the permitting approval for the Keystone XL pipeline early on in his tenure.
His expected rival, former President Donald Trump had tried to build a legacy of reducing regulation across the board and cut over 100 such rules throughout his administration.
“This year, the United States is projected to build more new electric generation capacity than we have in two decades – and 96 percent of that will be clean,” Biden’s national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said.
“This is how we win the future, by harnessing new technologies to grow our economy, deliver environmental justice, and save the planet for future generations.”
Notably, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the president’s team pleaded with Saudi Arabia to delay a cutback in oil output, ostensibly seeking to ease electoral pressures from voters getting stung at the gas pump.
