The US EPA’s new emissions regulation rules out new coal without CCS

• 10 years ago (2014-01-10)
• Junior Isles

North America 1021

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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally published details of its long expected rule changes on the allowed level of carbon emissions from new power plants.

The new regulations mandate that newly built coal plants can emit no more than 1100 pounds (500 kg) of carbon dioxide per MWh. The average US coal plant currently produces over 1700 pounds (772 kg) of carbon dioxide emissions for every MWh it produces.

New natural-gas fired plants are also covered, and those that are 100 MW or larger will be limited to 1000 pounds of carbon dioxide per MWh, while smaller plants can emit no more than 1100 pounds per MWh.

Modern combined-cycle natural gas plants are already able to meet the new EPA standard, but critics have said that it will be very difficult or impossible for new coal-fired power plants to be built in the United States under the scheme in the near future.

The EPA would of course likely stand by this as an intended feature of, rather than a problem with, the new proposals.

New coal plants would need effective carbon capture and storage (CCS) for around 20 to 40 per cent of their emissions if they want to qualify, and the technology is currently far from a commercial deployment at a large scale.

In a statement, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo) said that the EPA’s rule would be damaging to the economy.

“The EPA just announced another regulation that will increase poverty in coal country,” Barrasso said. “In addition to contradicting current law, this new regulation will put more Americans out of work and make it even harder for people to provide for their families.”

The EPA, for its part, argues that the necessity provided by the rule will spur investment in technological development by coal generators facing an increasingly bleak future without viable CCS.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology data shows that there are 24 significant CCS R&D; power projects worldwide, seven of which are in the United States and Canada.

Southern Company’s 582 MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGGC) plant in Kemper County, Mississippi, which aims to capture 65 per cent of its carbon emissions, is hoped to go online this year. Meanwhile, Summit Power’s Texas Clean Energy Project a 400 MW IGCC facility now under construction, aims to capture 90 per cent of its carbon emissions.

The publication of the EPA’s intended regulations in the Federal Register begins a 60 day comment period on the proposal, and legal challenges from industry have already been promised.