Biden EPA Proposes Stringent Rules for Carbon Emissions from Coal, Oil, Natural Gas Power, Boosting Carbon Capture. The Left Wants To Destroy America. DC, NIFO.
Posted by freedomforall 11 months, 2 weeks ago to Government
Majority of article:
After weeks of buildup, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally unveiled a new suite of carbon emissions proposals for power produced using natural gas, coal, and oil that could spur the use of carbon capture technologies.
The standards released on May 11 would impact new and old power infrastructure, including new natural gas turbines and the country’s existing coal fleet. Though the United States still has hundreds of coal plants, the number of such installations has fallen sharply during the past decade.
“We will see some coal retirements,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters on May 10.
He added that individual states and companies would have significant discretion in terms of implementation.
U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry in 2021 said America simply “won’t have coal” on its grid by 2030.
The EPA thinks its proposals will induce American power plants to boost their use of certain technologies, including the co-firing of fossil fuels with what it calls low-greenhouse gas (GHG) hydrogen and, in particular, the capture, sequestration, and storage of carbon.
Regan told reporters that the standards are about “clean air to breathe,” claiming they would yield “substantial health benefits” as well as “regulatory certainty” for the energy sector.
The agency projects that the standards will help America avoid thousands of premature deaths, tens of thousands of lost workdays, and over 300,000 asthma attacks just in the year 2030.
Regan and others with the EPA repeatedly stressed that they do not believe their vision runs afoul of West Virginia v. EPA.
That landmark Supreme Court decision, decided 6 to 3, concerned a carbon emissions plan for existing power plants put forth by the EPA under former President Barack Obama.
The court found that Congress hadn’t given the agency the authority to issue such emissions caps, referencing the plan’s “generation shifting approach” from coal to natural gas and other sources.
“The proposed limits and guidelines follow EPA’s traditional approach under the Clean Air Act to control pollution from stationary sources by relying on control technologies that are cost-effective and can be applied directly to power plants to reduce CO2,” an EPA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a May 10 email.
In its 681-page notice, the agency argued that co-firing hydrogen as a substitute for natural gas can qualify as a “system of emission reduction” under the Clean Air Act. It specified that hydrogen would have to be low-GHG, “the availability of which is expected to increase significantly and the cost of which is expected to decline significantly in the near future.”
“The EPA recognizes that even though the combustion of hydrogen is zero-GHG emitting, its production entails a range of GHG emissions, from low to high, depending on the method,” the proposal reads.
The agency claims that technologies to capture 90 percent of carbon dioxide have become “adequately demonstrated” and “cost reasonable” while realizing “substantial emissions reductions.”
The EPA said their proposal offers “ample lead time and substantial compliance flexibilities.” That might appear to conflict with President Joe Biden’s aim of achieving “a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035,” as expressed in a 2021 executive order.
EPA officials and staff told reporters on May 10 that the ambition was still within reach.
“We are absolutely in line with the president’s goal,” Regan said.
Ali Zaidi, the White House national climate advisor, characterized the target as a “North Star” on policy.
He also stressed that the rules are still proposals and liable to change based on input from the energy sector, organized labor, and other constituencies.
There will be a 60-day comment period once the rule appears in the Federal Register.
The proposals come against a backdrop of various major EPA actions bearing on fossil fuels, including new tailpipe emission standards.
Several weeks ago, the agency also proposed new emissions limits for coal plants focused on mercury and other air pollutants. It also recently took aim at methane leaks from oil and gas drilling sites.
Ahead of the EPA’s May 11 announcement, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw down the gauntlet on the looming proposals.
“I fear that this Administration’s commitment to their extreme ideology overshadows their responsibility to ensure long-lasting energy and economic security and I will oppose all EPA nominees until they halt their government overreach,” the lawmaker, who represents a conservative, fossil-fuel producing state, said in a May 10 statement.
Fossil fuel advocates greeted the EPA’s latest with skepticism.
“President Joe Biden’s plans to restrict carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and the inevitable support from environmental organizations, illustrates what is wrong with the so-called green movement,” Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition said in statement in April.
“Rather than encouraging greater emissions of CO2 to enhance life on Earth, thereby greening the planet, they tell us we must reduce ‘carbon pollution’ to save the climate. But CO2 is anything but pollution. It is an invisible, non-toxic, trace, natural component of the atmosphere, allowing plants, and thus all life on Earth, to thrive,” he added.
Steve Milloy, a former member of the EPA’s transition team under Trump, challenged the idea that the rulemaking is in line with West Virginia v. EPA.
“They [the EPA] can regulate emissions for a variety of reasons, and that’s fine if they’re going to try to do that, but what they can’t do is they can’t use emissions as an excuse to implement a different social agenda,” he told The Epoch Times in an April 27 interview.
He also asserted that the proposed standards would effectively “ban fossil fuel plants without carbon capture.”
Other experts have a different perspective.
“Just because the agency tailored its rules around emissions levels that could be met with carbon capture systems doesn’t mean utilities will be compelled to install them,” said Mike O’Boyle of Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC in an interview with Politico’s E&E News in late April.
Yet, carbon capture is key for cutting emissions from at least some sources, according to EPA documentation.
An agency staff member who spoke with reporters on May 10 said carbon capture is the best option “for long-lived, coal-fired power plants.”
Past attempts at carbon capture have faced technical and financial hurdles. The Petra Nova project in Texas was beset by mechanical issues before shutting down during the COVID-19-era oil price downturn in 2020. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that it’s now on track to reopening.
Milloy noted that a similar endeavor launched under Obama in Mississippi, the Kemper project, failed too.
Carbon capture “is not even scientifically developed yet,” James Taylor of the Heartland Institute said in an April 27 interview with The Epoch Times.
Like Milloy, he expects the EPA’s standards to lose in the courtroom.
Yet, both men also believe the proposal’s existence as law for any length of time could lead to serious downstream results. They foresee it effectively forcing behaviorial change from an energy sector that fears the consequences of non-compliance.
“This is a lawless administration imposing a lawless rule that they know is illegal,” Taylor said.
After weeks of buildup, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally unveiled a new suite of carbon emissions proposals for power produced using natural gas, coal, and oil that could spur the use of carbon capture technologies.
The standards released on May 11 would impact new and old power infrastructure, including new natural gas turbines and the country’s existing coal fleet. Though the United States still has hundreds of coal plants, the number of such installations has fallen sharply during the past decade.
“We will see some coal retirements,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters on May 10.
He added that individual states and companies would have significant discretion in terms of implementation.
U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry in 2021 said America simply “won’t have coal” on its grid by 2030.
The EPA thinks its proposals will induce American power plants to boost their use of certain technologies, including the co-firing of fossil fuels with what it calls low-greenhouse gas (GHG) hydrogen and, in particular, the capture, sequestration, and storage of carbon.
Regan told reporters that the standards are about “clean air to breathe,” claiming they would yield “substantial health benefits” as well as “regulatory certainty” for the energy sector.
The agency projects that the standards will help America avoid thousands of premature deaths, tens of thousands of lost workdays, and over 300,000 asthma attacks just in the year 2030.
Regan and others with the EPA repeatedly stressed that they do not believe their vision runs afoul of West Virginia v. EPA.
That landmark Supreme Court decision, decided 6 to 3, concerned a carbon emissions plan for existing power plants put forth by the EPA under former President Barack Obama.
The court found that Congress hadn’t given the agency the authority to issue such emissions caps, referencing the plan’s “generation shifting approach” from coal to natural gas and other sources.
“The proposed limits and guidelines follow EPA’s traditional approach under the Clean Air Act to control pollution from stationary sources by relying on control technologies that are cost-effective and can be applied directly to power plants to reduce CO2,” an EPA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a May 10 email.
In its 681-page notice, the agency argued that co-firing hydrogen as a substitute for natural gas can qualify as a “system of emission reduction” under the Clean Air Act. It specified that hydrogen would have to be low-GHG, “the availability of which is expected to increase significantly and the cost of which is expected to decline significantly in the near future.”
“The EPA recognizes that even though the combustion of hydrogen is zero-GHG emitting, its production entails a range of GHG emissions, from low to high, depending on the method,” the proposal reads.
The agency claims that technologies to capture 90 percent of carbon dioxide have become “adequately demonstrated” and “cost reasonable” while realizing “substantial emissions reductions.”
The EPA said their proposal offers “ample lead time and substantial compliance flexibilities.” That might appear to conflict with President Joe Biden’s aim of achieving “a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035,” as expressed in a 2021 executive order.
EPA officials and staff told reporters on May 10 that the ambition was still within reach.
“We are absolutely in line with the president’s goal,” Regan said.
Ali Zaidi, the White House national climate advisor, characterized the target as a “North Star” on policy.
He also stressed that the rules are still proposals and liable to change based on input from the energy sector, organized labor, and other constituencies.
There will be a 60-day comment period once the rule appears in the Federal Register.
The proposals come against a backdrop of various major EPA actions bearing on fossil fuels, including new tailpipe emission standards.
Several weeks ago, the agency also proposed new emissions limits for coal plants focused on mercury and other air pollutants. It also recently took aim at methane leaks from oil and gas drilling sites.
Ahead of the EPA’s May 11 announcement, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw down the gauntlet on the looming proposals.
“I fear that this Administration’s commitment to their extreme ideology overshadows their responsibility to ensure long-lasting energy and economic security and I will oppose all EPA nominees until they halt their government overreach,” the lawmaker, who represents a conservative, fossil-fuel producing state, said in a May 10 statement.
Fossil fuel advocates greeted the EPA’s latest with skepticism.
“President Joe Biden’s plans to restrict carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and the inevitable support from environmental organizations, illustrates what is wrong with the so-called green movement,” Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition said in statement in April.
“Rather than encouraging greater emissions of CO2 to enhance life on Earth, thereby greening the planet, they tell us we must reduce ‘carbon pollution’ to save the climate. But CO2 is anything but pollution. It is an invisible, non-toxic, trace, natural component of the atmosphere, allowing plants, and thus all life on Earth, to thrive,” he added.
Steve Milloy, a former member of the EPA’s transition team under Trump, challenged the idea that the rulemaking is in line with West Virginia v. EPA.
“They [the EPA] can regulate emissions for a variety of reasons, and that’s fine if they’re going to try to do that, but what they can’t do is they can’t use emissions as an excuse to implement a different social agenda,” he told The Epoch Times in an April 27 interview.
He also asserted that the proposed standards would effectively “ban fossil fuel plants without carbon capture.”
Other experts have a different perspective.
“Just because the agency tailored its rules around emissions levels that could be met with carbon capture systems doesn’t mean utilities will be compelled to install them,” said Mike O’Boyle of Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC in an interview with Politico’s E&E News in late April.
Yet, carbon capture is key for cutting emissions from at least some sources, according to EPA documentation.
An agency staff member who spoke with reporters on May 10 said carbon capture is the best option “for long-lived, coal-fired power plants.”
Past attempts at carbon capture have faced technical and financial hurdles. The Petra Nova project in Texas was beset by mechanical issues before shutting down during the COVID-19-era oil price downturn in 2020. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that it’s now on track to reopening.
Milloy noted that a similar endeavor launched under Obama in Mississippi, the Kemper project, failed too.
Carbon capture “is not even scientifically developed yet,” James Taylor of the Heartland Institute said in an April 27 interview with The Epoch Times.
Like Milloy, he expects the EPA’s standards to lose in the courtroom.
Yet, both men also believe the proposal’s existence as law for any length of time could lead to serious downstream results. They foresee it effectively forcing behaviorial change from an energy sector that fears the consequences of non-compliance.
“This is a lawless administration imposing a lawless rule that they know is illegal,” Taylor said.
Logs burn into H2O, CO2, ash, heat and light. You cannot sequester and assemble those products back into a damned log!!!
In a closed system entropy tends to increase, unless it is acted upon by something outside of that system. Basic thermodynamics, which the global warming religious supplicants are ignorant of.
Perpetual motion Rube Goldberg machines.
Sawing off the branch you are standing on to force people to climb. Insanity, or murder.
Even if CO2 were a serious problem, the libtards are going about it all wrong...treating science just like a religion...but I'm not worried, fission and fusion will carry the load, with hydrocarbons as backup. Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Freezing to death is the Motivation to Burn black stuff to get warm again.
It is funny...in the Bible there is the Noah and the Flood story. And then there are liberals who think we are going to die from a global warming induced flood...everyone seems to have a religious apocalypse...They think theirs is science based, however 99% of them simply have blind faith in the Science(TM) they are being told to believe and only a few scientists with a solid background in Math, Chemistry and Physics can speak intelligently and accurately about the hypothesis (it is not a theory nor a law) of global warming.
Snowballs roll downhill, not up. Why is that a controversy?
To maintain control, fear must be generated from nothing.
This has been true since Eve obeyed the snake.
Lying is how humans control other humans.
With a system of JustUS there are no penalties if the lies are on the 'path.'
Truth must be punished severely if it disagrees.