Biden EPA Tightens Screws on Coal Plants

Biden EPA Tightens Screws on Coal Plants
Towers carrying electrical lines are shown in this file photo in South San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 30, 2007. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Nathan Worcester
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A new proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would tighten emissions restrictions for coal-fired power plants, heartening public health advocates and raising questions from the energy industry about cost and feasibility.

It comes after a February 2022 EPA ruling that reversed a Trump administration action in 2020 on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants.

Those standards were first issued by the Obama administration EPA over a decade ago.

The Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that the EPA should have accounted for the new standards’ costs to power plants.

The Obama EPA in 2016 found that incorporating costs did not change their conclusion, in response to what they characterized as a “narrow decision.”
L-R: First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama at the Capitol after inauguration ceremonies in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2017. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
L-R: First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama at the Capitol after inauguration ceremonies in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2017. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Yet, in 2020, the Trump EPA challenged that analysis. Notably, it determined the residual risk due to emissions from oil- and coal-fired plants was acceptable, making additional changes to MATS unnecessary.

Now, with the agency’s latest proposal, current power plants that run on lignite coal face a 70 percent cut to their emissions limit for mercury.

The EPA would also cut the filterable particulate matter emissions limit in current coal-fired plants by two-thirds, or 67 percent. That’s meant to address arsenic, nickel, and other hazardous air pollutants coming out of coal plants, according to the agency.

The EPA would mandate that coal-fired plants use continuous emission monitoring systems that comply with those limits.

The agency calculates that its actions would yield up to $3 billion in “public health benefits” between 2028 and 2037.

There’s a 60-day comment period for the proposal. The EPA also intends to hold a hearing on it.

Mixed Reactions

The Biden administration presented its proposal as a practical measure that would benefit Americans.

“By leveraging proven, emissions-reduction measures available at reasonable costs and encouraging new, advanced control technologies, we can reduce hazardous pollution from coal-fired power plants, protecting our planet and improving public health for all,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a statement on the announcement.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan speaks during a press conference in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 16, 2023. (Reuters/Alan Freed)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan speaks during a press conference in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 16, 2023. Reuters/Alan Freed

Yet, energy industry insiders who spoke with The Epoch Times voiced concerns.

Dan Kish, a senior vice president for policy at the free market American Energy Alliance, said the proposal’s goal is “to make electricity prices higher, as are all their energy policies.”

In an April 6 interview with The Epoch Times, he characterized the move as “legal abuse.”

Conor Bernstein, a spokesperson for the National Mining Association, told The Epoch Times that the proposal fit into a broader effort to constrain coal from the current EPA.

“The cumulative effect of the EPA’s agenda is a less reliable and increasingly expensive supply of electricity as the nation continues to struggle with energy-driven inflation,” he said in an April 6 statement to The Epoch Times.

Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of the coal plant trade organization America’s Power, also noted that the latest proposal is part of a larger trend.

“We remain concerned that the combined effects of EPA rules, including a final MATS, will cause more premature retirements of coal plants at the same time grid operators are issuing warnings about the increased reliability risks to the grid due to coal retirements,” she told The Epoch Times in an April 6 email.

Isaac Orr, an energy and environmental policy fellow with the conservative Center of the American Experiment, sees the latest rule as the continuation of a trend that started under Obama, who inaugurated MATS.

A conveyor belt transports coal at the Westmoreland Coal Company's Sheerness Mine near Hanna, Alta., on Dec. 13, 2016. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)
A conveyor belt transports coal at the Westmoreland Coal Company's Sheerness Mine near Hanna, Alta., on Dec. 13, 2016. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh
“Even the original version of the rule was a solution in search of a problem because U.S. coal-fired power plants accounted for just 0.5 percent of global mercury emissions at that time,” he said, citing a Cato Institute brief that analyzed emissions based on the EPA’s own proposal.

Meanwhile, some environmental and public health groups celebrated the EPA’s move.

The American Thoracic Society, a group focused on respiratory health, applauded the proposal on Twitter.
Michael Panfil of the Environmental Defense Fund encouraged the EPA “to adopt the strongest feasible pollution limits.”
“Protective pollution limits, together with 21st century monitoring of smokestack pollution, will help safeguard public health,” he added.

Grids Lose Generating Capacity

Coal has lost more and more ground in the United States over the past decade.
By 2026, the United States will lose fully half of its coal generation capacity, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
A February 2022 report from the U.S. regional transmission organization PJM projects that it will lose 40 gigawatts of its generation capacity by the close of this decade. That’s due almost entirely to the loss of coal and natural gas.

“The amount of generation retirements appears to be more certain than the timely arrival of replacement generation,” PJM’s report states.

PJM supplies electricity for 65 million Americans, including Washington and its outlying suburbs.

The U.S. Capitol Building is seen past the Washington Monument as the sun sets in Washington on Dec. 26, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The U.S. Capitol Building is seen past the Washington Monument as the sun sets in Washington on Dec. 26, 2020. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

“Even as the nation’s grid operators and grid reliability regulators escalate their warnings of capacity shortfalls and the growing threat of blackouts, EPA is not listening and has hijacked the reins of the nation’s energy policy at an extraordinarily precarious time,” Bernstein said.

Orr drew attention to risks elsewhere in the North American grid.

“Biden’s MATS rule will be particularly dangerous for grid reliability in the Midwest because the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO), a 15-state regional power grid spanning from Minnesota to Mississippi, is already at risk of rolling blackouts. MISO currently has a 1,200 megawatt (MW) capacity shortfall, meaning there is not enough reliable power plant capacity to meet its safety margin,” he said.

Forty-five million people are served by MISO.

“Older coal, nuclear, and natural gas generation [are exiting] the system faster than replacement resources are connecting,” a report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation states regarding MISO.

It warned that the system’s latest retirements are part of an “accelerating trend.”

“This rule will make this situation worse by tightening regulations on lignite coal plants. The state of North Dakota supplies the MISO grid with approximately 2,000 MW of power from lignite plants. If these rules force those plants offline, it would nearly triple MISO’s current capacity shortfall and push the Midwest closer to devastating rolling blackouts,” Orr said.

Meanwhile, China in the past year has stepped up the permitting and construction of coal-fired plants.

Smoke belches from a coal-fueled power station near Datong, in China's northern Shanxi province in this photo taken on Nov. 19, 2015. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)
Smoke belches from a coal-fueled power station near Datong, in China's northern Shanxi province in this photo taken on Nov. 19, 2015. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed open pit coal mine in Alxa Banner in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Feb. 24, 2023. (Lian Zhen/Xinhua via AP)
Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed open pit coal mine in Alxa Banner in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Feb. 24, 2023. Lian Zhen/Xinhua via AP
“The coal power capacity starting construction in China was six times as large as that in all of the rest of the world combined,” a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) states.
It has also continued building such plants outside its borders despite pledging to stop.
Nathan Worcester
Nathan Worcester
Author
Nathan Worcester covers national politics for The Epoch Times and has also focused on energy and the environment. Nathan has written about everything from fusion energy and ESG to Biden's classified documents and international conservative politics. He lives and works in Chicago. Nathan can be reached at [email protected].
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