[ad_1]
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s administration is poised to announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, potentially forcing pollution to be collected through chimneys. .
The proposed regulation, if implemented, would be the first time the federal government has capped carbon dioxide emissions from an existing power plant. Existing power plants generate about 25% of the global warming pollution that the United States produces. It will also apply to future plants.
Nearly all coal- and gas-fired power plants will need to reduce or capture nearly all of their carbon emissions by 2040, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the regulations have not been made public. I have.
The proposed rule is sure to face opposition from the fossil fuel industry, power plant operators and congressional allies. An immediate legal challenge is likely to come from a group of Republican attorneys general who have already sued the Biden administration to halt other climate change policies. I have.
Regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency are being reviewed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget and may still be adjusted.
EPA spokeswoman Maria Mikaros said the EPA is “building on momentum from President Biden’s Investing in America economic agenda, including proposals to address carbon emissions from new and existing power plants. We are moving urgently to advance standards that protect.”
It does not mandate the use of carbon capture, an early and expensive technology. Rather, it sets an upper limit on the pollution rate that factory operators must meet. They can do so by using alternative technologies or, in the case of gas plants, by switching to carbon-free fuel sources like green hydrogen, according to people familiar with the matter. But the regulation could lead to more widespread adoption of carbon capture technology, officials said.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, most of the electricity generated in the US last year (about 60%) came from burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil.
The proposal follows two other plans by the Biden administration to slash emissions by accelerating the country’s transition to electric vehicles and curb methane leaks from oil and gas wells.
If implemented as proposed, these three regulations would significantly reduce the global warming-causing pollution caused by the world’s largest economy. Combined with his 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which he is putting $370 billion into in clean energy programs, Biden said he would cut the country’s emissions by about half by 2030 and stop adding carbon dioxide. put the country on track to deliver on its promises. into the atmosphere by 2050.
Scientists say this is the action required of all major industrialized nations to keep the global average temperature from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Beyond that point, the impacts of devastating heat waves, floods, droughts, crop failures and species extinctions will be very difficult for humans to cope with. The Earth has already warmed by an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius.
Biden has turned his executive powers over to global warming after facing sharp criticism from environmentalists, especially young climate activists, for his decision to approve a major oil drilling project last month. Said he would gladly use it to act on the pristine land of Alaska known as Willow.
“We must do more than recognize the climate challenges we face,” Biden told other world leaders at a virtual conference Thursday to discuss climate and energy. hm,” he said. “We are determined to step up our ambition and action, and yes, we are willing to work hard to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
By announcing climate rules for power plants, Mr. Biden hopes to achieve the success his former boss, President Barack Obama, failed to achieve. Nearly a decade ago, Obama tried to enact broad limits on power plant contamination, first blocked by the Supreme Court and then rescinded by President Donald J. Trump. Last summer, the Supreme Court confirmed that the EPA has the power to limit carbon emissions from power plants.
But three factors made the Biden administration bold. First, carbon capture technology has advanced since the Obama administration. Second, when Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, they added language classifying greenhouse gases as pollutants regulated by the EPA. .
Instead of creating one limit that all power plants must comply with, the EPA intends to be flexible, said a person familiar with the new plan. It plans to set various targets, such as the scale of the power plant, whether it will operate regularly or intermittently, and whether it is already scheduled for decommissioning. Some of the coal plants slated for retirement in the next decade will never need to meet the new standards.
Patrick Morrissey, the Republican Attorney General for West Virginia, a major coal-producing state, said Friday that he and others are waiting to see Biden’s plan. He “want to review the EPA’s proposed new rule on power plants and is ready to take the lead again in 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, non-polluting energy sources.
Like proposed regulations to regulate emissions and methane from oil and gas facilities, the power plant regulations are subject to a public comment period and are unlikely to be finalized and implemented until next year.
The Biden administration is rushing to implement three proposed rules before Republicans have a chance to override them if they win control of Congress in 2024. He was finalized within 60 days of the last Congress.
The crackdown on emissions from cars, oil and gas facilities and power plants comes as Mr. Biden prepares to announce his candidacy for re-election. Biden needs the young voters who helped him win the White House in 2020.
Biden said in a virtual meeting Thursday with leaders of other major economies that he would ask Congress for $500 million to fight deforestation in the Amazon. On Friday, he signed an executive order establishing the White House Office of Environmental Justice and requiring all federal agencies to develop plans to address the disproportionate impacts of pollution and climate change on minority and tribal communities. Did.
“Since I became president, I have flown over literally thousands of acres of land that have been scorched by wildfires due to environmental change,” he told environmental activists at a ceremony in the Rose Garden where he signed the executive order. “We’ve seen storms rage more and more frequently and turn too many communities into rubble. It’s an existential threat to our country and literally the world.”
Yet utilities complain that policies to force the introduction of carbon capture technologies are too costly and drive up energy costs for consumers.
A 2021 report by a group of 600 global investors, including BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, and other major shareholders in U.S. investor-owned utilities, said the high costs of carbon capture “It will be a risky and potentially costly decarbonization strategy,” he said.
But some experts say the landscape for carbon capture technology is changing.
The technology that many once considered boondoggle has matured. The Biden administration is investing billions in research and demonstration projects to take it further. There are only about 40 power plants worldwide with this equipment, but the number is slowly increasing. Calpine Corporation, one of the largest natural gas power generation companies in the United States, is building a huge carbon capture and sequestration facility for its generators in Deer Park, Texas.
The Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives to accelerate adoption. The legislation increased existing federal tax credits for power companies that capture carbon dioxide pollution from $85 to $135 and from $30 to $50 per tonne of carbon dioxide. This could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for major power companies.
Carrie Jenks, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard University, said: “But the IRA incentives really cut costs and make it economically viable. We are seeing companies want to build.”
[ad_2]
Source link
