Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
1/10/14
Twin bills that take aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft regulation setting CO2 emissions standards for new power plants were introduced in the House and Senate this week. The Electricity Security and Affordability Act, which would render the EPA’s draft new source performance standards rule for fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units of no effect, was introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) two months after they unveiled the draft version of the bill in late October. Whitfield, who is chair of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, said the subcommittee plans to vote on the legislation next week.
“Coal is one of our most abundant and affordable resources, but EPA is acting beyond its legal authority by proposing unworkable regulations that would mean it would be impossible to build a new coal-fired power plant in America," Whitfield said. "These destructive regulations are being pushed through without a public debate about the future of coal in this country, despite the consequences on jobs, energy costs, and economic growth. This bipartisan, bicameral solution will allow coal to continue to supply affordable, reliable electricity necessary to support a growing economy. It will hold EPA accountable by ensuring that greenhouse gas regulations for power plants moving forward are actually achievable and preserve an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy.”
The legislation would require that any future emission limits for coal-fired plants to have also been achieved by at least six units at different U.S. commercial power plants over a one-year period. Under the bill, emission standards would also be established separately for new natural gas and coal-fired plants, and new coal-fired plants that use lignite coal would be established as a subcategory, with any emission standards to also have been achieved by at least three units at different U.S. commercial power plants over a one-year period.
Bill Would Also Target Future Regs. for Existing Plants
The EPA’s proposal sets separate CO2 emissions standards for coal and gas units. Depending on whether plant operators decide to measure CO2 emissions over a 12- or 84-month operating period, individual coal units would have to cap emissions at between 1,000 and 1,100 lbs CO2/MWh. Gas-fired turbines, depending on their size, must also meet a CO2 emissions limit of between 1,000 and 1,100 lbs MWh over a 12-month period.
Although EPA’s proposed regulations do not set emission standards for existing power plants, Whitfield and Manchin’s bill also takes aim at any future EPA regulations governing emissions from those plants. The draft bill states that any such rules would not go into effect unless Congress first passed legislation setting an enactment date. The EPA administrator would also be required to submit a report to Congress about the proposed rule’s economic impacts and projected effects on global greenhouse gas emissions.