Yesterday, the EPA announced and issued a document initiating a rulemaking, which is summarized below:
SUMMARY: In this action, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to repeal all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants. The EPA is proposing that the Clean Air Act (CAA) requires it to make a finding that GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution, as a predicate to regulating GHG emissions from those plants. The EPA is further proposing to make a finding that GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution. The EPA is also proposing, as an alternative, to repeal a narrower set of requirements that includes the emission guidelines for existing fossil fuel-fired steam generating units, the carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS)-based standards for coal-fired steam generating units undertaking a large modification, and the CCS-based standards for new base load stationary combustion turbines.
Repeal of the GHG rules will dramatically alter utility resource plans that currently require coal plants to be either retired or converted to natural while also placing limits on the operations of replacement dispatchable capacity.
For a copy of the proposed rule, use this link.