EPA to propose carbon emission limits

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose carbon emissions limits for new power plants Friday, a pillar of the White House climate agenda that’s facing attacks from industry groups and Republicans who call it an assault on the coal industry.

{mosads}The first-time limits would require use of technologies to sharply reduce carbon pollution from future coal-fired power plants, rebuffing critics who say that’s not feasible.

Environmentalists, who were frustrated during President Obama’s first term at the pace of federal climate policy, applauded the draft rules in a flurry of statements.

“The EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards will protect Americans from dangerous air pollution, protect our communities from harmful carbon pollution, and strengthen our economy with clean energy jobs,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

But the standards faced immediate attacks from Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is seeking a Senate vote to block EPA’s carbon rules.

“The President is leading a war on coal and what that really means for Kentucky families is a war on jobs,” said McConnell, whose state is a major coal producer.

Industry groups call the rules an illegal, de facto ban on building new coal plants, arguing that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology isn’t close to widespread and cost-effective commercial readiness.

“The Clean Air Act requires that technologies be demonstrated and take into account costs. Basing standards on highly-subsidized, non-commercial scale and even non-built facilities is contrary to the spirit and plain language of the [Clean Air Act],” said Scott Segal, an attorney and lobbyist with Bracewell & Giuliani who represents power companies.

The rules for newly constructed plants will almost certainly be challenged in court.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who will formally announce the rules for future plants Friday morning, and EPA allies are seeking to rebut allegations that the rules would illegally mandate a technology that’s not available.

“I will say that on the basis of information that that we see out in the market today and what is being constructed and what [is] being contemplated, that CCS technology is feasible and it is available today,” McCarthy said at a House hearing Wednesday, although she cautioned that she wasn’t directly addressing the rule because it wasn’t yet out.

She said there are four plants being constructed with CCS in their design. 

In a blog post on the Huffington Post on Friday, McCarthy said that the technology “is being used right now to support the development of both new conventional and new unconventional coal plants.

“These proposed standards would minimize carbon pollution by taking advantage of modern, cleaner energy technologies that power companies are already using to build the next generation of power plants.”  

McCarthy told The Washington Post in an interview that “clearly the technology is available. It’s been fully demonstrated.”

“We’re not trying to deny that there is a cost associated with these, but any first-generation technology is going to have that,” she told the paper.

The Center for Progressive Reform, a liberal group, said the EPA is on firm legal footing. In a blog post Friday, CPR’s Alexandra Klass took aim at industry allegations about the rule.

“[T]he Clean Air Act only requires a technological requirement to have been demonstrated in some part of the industry, and that has occurred. The Clean Air Act does not require technological requirements to be favored by competitive advantage,” writes Klass, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s law school.

The EPA is also working on more far-reaching standards for existing power plants, which are scheduled to be proposed in draft form by next June.