EPA eases rules for new coal generation

• 5 years ago (2018-12-07)
• David Flin

Coal 296 North America 1021

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America’s EPA has proposed eliminating the requirement that new coal-fired generation incorporate carbon capture technology. However, this measure is expected to have very little impact on encouraging coal-fired generation, given the competition from lower-cost natural gas and renewables that have cut coal’s market share.

The proposal would redefine the best system of emission reduction (BSER) for new, modified, and reconstructed coal plants to “the most efficient demonstrated steam cycle in combination with the best operating practices.” This would eliminate the 2015 BSER from the Obama Administration requiring partial carbon capture and storage.

The revised BSER would limit large, newly constructed units to CO2 emissions of 1900 lb/MWh, and new small units to 2000 lb/MWh. EPA’s announcement said that revising the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) will “provide room for American energy production to continue to grow and diversify.”

However, according to the EPA’s Federal Register notice: “Power sector modelling does not predict that construction of any new coal-fired electricity generating units. Therefore, based on modelled impacts, any greenhouse gas requirements for new coal-fired units would have no significant costs or benefits.”