reader comments 84 Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a suite of rules that target pollution from fossil fuel power plants. In addition to limits on carbon emissions and a tightening of existing regulations on mercury releases, additional rules target coal ash waste left over from power generation and contaminants in the water used during the operation of power plants. While some of these regulations will affect the operation of plants powered by natural gas, most directly target the use of coal and will likely be the final nail in the coffin for the already dying industry.
The decision to release all four rules at the same time goes beyond simply getting the pain over with at once. Rules governing carbon emissions are expected to influence the emissions of other pollutants like mercury, and vice versa. As a result, the EPA expects that creating a single plan for compliance with all the rules will be more cost-effective.
Targeting carbon
The regulations that target carbon dioxide emissions have been in the works for roughly a year. The rules came in response to a Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA, which ruled that Clean Air Act regulations had to target individual power plants rather than giving states flexibility regarding how to meet broader standards. As a result, the new rules target carbon dioxide the only way they can: Plants can either switch to burning non-fossil fuels such as green hydrogen, or they can capture their carbon emissions.
The EPA did recognize, however, that the decline of coal was handling some of the issue on its own. No new plants have been built in years, and most of the existing ones are growing increasingly old and expensive compared to cheap natural gas and renewables, leading to widespread closures. So the EPA set up tiers of rules based on how long plants were expected to be operating. If a coal plant would be shut within a decade or two anyway, it could simply continue operating as it had or meet less stringent requirements.
AdvertisementIn the final rule, this has been simplified down into three categories. Any plant that will cease operations before 2032 will get an exemption. Those that will shut prior to 2039 will have to meet less stringent requirements, equivalent to replacing 40 percent of their fuel with natural gas. Anything operating past 2039 will have to eliminate 90 percent of its carbon emissions.
Natural gas plants will face similar tiers of stringency, but this time based on how often they're in use. Plants that operate at less than 20 percent of their capacity, such as those that simply fill in during periods of low renewable energy production, can meet regulations simply by adopting low-emissions fuel. Those that run between 20 and 40 percent of the time have to meet operational efficiency standards, while anything that's operational over 40 percent of the time will have to eliminate 90 percent of its emissions.
Additional changes will allow plants some temporary exemptions from regulations if they're deemed critical to maintaining grid stability.
Should the rules survive court challenges, it's unlikely that more than a handful of coal plants will continue operations. Since burning coal produces a large range of pollutants, this will provide substantial non-climate benefits. The EPA estimates that in two decades, there will be significant declines in nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide pollution, fewer particulates, and less mercury released to the environment. Over the intervening years, this will avoid 1,200 premature deaths, nearly 360,000 asthma problems, and roughly 50,000 lost work days. All of that leads to substantial economic benefits, as seen in this chart.
Thanks to tax incentives for carbon capture contained in the Inflation Reduction Act and the continuing fall in the price of renewables, the EPA estimates that meeting the standards will result in a "negligible impact on electricity prices."
New rules for coal
Limitations on mercury have existed for some time, and the EPA has been working on tightening those rules since shortly after Biden entered office. The rule being announced today targets the burning of lignite, a softer form of coal that burns inefficiently due to a high level of contaminants. Lignite-fired plants will see existing limits on mercury emissions drop by 70 percent; all coal plants will see limits on other toxic metals fall by 67 percent. Plants will also be required to install real-time monitoring systems and make their data available to the public.
Overall, this will cut mercury, arsenic, and lead emissions, with obvious benefits for public health; the EPA expects to see a lower risk of fatal heart attacks, cancer, and developmental delays in children. As an added benefit, compliance will also cut carbon emissions.
Separately, coal plants will see tighter regulations on the discharge of water. Water is used to move the material left behind when coal is burned, termed "fly ash," out of the combustion area and into longer-term storage. It's also used in the machinery that removes pollutants (including mercury and sulfur) from the exhaust gasses of coal plants. During these processes, the water frequently picks up the toxic contaminants that are associated with coal use.
The EPA is also tightening the limits of contaminants allowed in this water before it is returned to the environment. Again, coal-fired plants that will be closed within the next decade will be allowed to continue operating under present restrictions until their closing; only those kept open for longer will need to meet the new requirements. "Following rigorous analysis, EPA has determined that this final rule will have minimal effects on electricity prices," the agency says. "EPA’s analysis shows that the final rule will provide billions of dollars in health and environmental benefits each year."
AdvertisementThe final rule being announced today is largely closing a loophole in the existing rules regarding fly ash, which contains lots of toxic metals that can leach into the groundwater near storage facilities. Existing rules regulate many of the storage areas, but the agency has identified a number of inactive disposal sites at active coal plants, a situation that fell outside existing regulations. (Existing regulations targeted active disposal sites at operating plants and inactive sites at shuttered facilities.) The new rule brings these exceptions into the same regulatory scheme that governs the rest of the storage sites.
Sending signals
As noted above, the EPA argues that tying these regulations together will help those running coal-fired plants sort out how to meet them. "EPA is providing a predictable regulatory outlook for power companies, including opportunities to reduce compliance complexity, and clear signals to create market and price stability," the agency says.
Given that all four of these regulations target coal-burning plants, those "clear signals" are that coal is going away. It was doing so on its own, but the added regulations narrow the opportunities for coal plants to operate profitably.
Given the outsize impacts of coal pollution on public health, this also makes the EPA's economic case much easier. The vast costs of the health impacts will always dwarf the costs of compliance, especially in this case, where many plants will close for economic reasons before they even need to worry about compliance.
But the real battle will come in maintaining the rules governing carbon emissions in natural gas plants through court challenges and changes in administration. Natural gas is economically competitive, and it is currently playing key roles in both eliminating coal from the grid and balancing out the intermittent production from renewables. But long-term, our climate goals require that its emissions go away as well.
Given that these rules may not survive elections and the courts, it's not clear that the EPA's announcement is as direct a signal as our climate needs it to be.
