New EPA Rules Clamp Down on Coal-Fired Plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a new rule targeting existing coal-fired and new gas-fired power plants that generate electricity sold to utilities. Known as the Carbon Pollution Standards, it will require long-term coal-fired plants and base load new gas-fired plants to control 90 percent of their carbon emissions over the next several years through technologies such as carbon capture and storage and efficient, updated turbines.

An EPA analysis projects the legislation, which is one of several final rules to slash pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, will drive reductions of 1.38B metric tons of CO2 through 2047. And it is estimated to cut tens of thousands of tons of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and other air pollutants

Sizing up impact in dollars, the analysis goes on to project net climate and public health benefits of $370B from 2024 to 2047—to the tune of $270B in climate benefits and $120B in health benefits. Compliance costs over that same timeframe would be $19B, or $0.98B per year, the EPA says.

Homing in on health co-benefits, the agency looked at 2035, estimating the rule should result in about 1,200 avoided premature deaths; 870 avoided hospital and emergency room visits; 1,900 avoided cases of asthma onset; 48,000 avoided school absence days; and 57,000 lost workdays.

“The Carbon Pollution Standards provide power companies with a range of options for managing their existing generating fleets as well as investing in new generation. And they provide the time and flexibility that power companies and grid operators need to plan for and invest in compliance while continuing to support a reliable and affordable supply of electricity,” Nick Conger, EPA spokesperson wrote to Waste360.

The EPA’s findings, he says, align with recent reports from the Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory that also indicate the sector can effectively deliver on mounting electricity demands while meeting regulatory expectations. 

States will have two years to develop their plans while working with their utilities to identify what they deem as best options.  And operators that will be installing control technologies can apply to extend their compliance date by up to one year if they encounter a delay considered outside of their control.

Existing steam units will need to comply by Jan. 1, 2030 or Jan. 1, 2032 (depending on subcategory). New natural gas turbines were expected to comply by July 8, 2024 or by startup for phase 1 and have until Jan. 1, 2032 for phase 2.

EPA finalized three more rules in conjunction with the Carbon Pollution Standards to include:

Units that permanently stop burning coal by 2028 will be expected to comply with less-stringent standards.

For inactive impoundments at inactive plants, which are commonly unlined and unmonitored, requirements will be similar to those of inactive impoundments at active facilities.

Leaking “historic” disposal units that were exempt under earlier rules will now be regulated to ensure any contamination is remediated and to prevent further contamination. This includes surface impoundments that closed prior to implementation of the 2015 CCR Rule but where coal ash was placed directly on the land.

While EPA contends these standards will provide a predictable regulatory outlook for power companies “including opportunities to reduce compliance complexity, and clear signals to create market and price stability,” the industry has pushed back, with attorneys general from just over two dozen states and trade groups fighting to obstruct the legislation, specifically around carbon pollution.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of the opposition leads, said in a statement that the regulations are based on emissions reduction technologies that have not been meaningfully deployed in the real world and exceed the EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act, further commenting that the rule "is setting up the plants to fail and therefore shutter, altering the nation’s already stretched grid."

In a new development in July, the court has allowed the rule to go into effect while litigation continues.

Support has poured in from environmental advocates such as BlueGreen Alliance.

“These rules call on utilities and states to be full partners in making this transition fair for energy workers and communities,” BlueGreen Alliance executive director Jason Walsh said in a statement. 

“It also complements the historic federal investments made by the Biden-Harris administration [Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] and the previous Congress, which provide a toolbox of critical investments targeted to the workers and communities experiencing the economic impacts of energy transition.”

Meanwhile, as emissions standards tighten and some cleaner fuels get cheaper, coal-fired power plants are on the decline. They generated 16.2 percent of the country’s electricity in 2023, down from 19.7 percent in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. This downward trend follows an ongoing pattern: between 2010 and May 2019, 290 coal-fired power plants closed, which was 40 percent of the country's coal generating capacity at the time. 

The EPA’s rules further clamping down on fossil to support an energy transition are anticipated to result in more closures.