The Environmental Protection Agency finalized four new rules Thursday that set tougher emissions limits on coal and new gas-fired power plants, taking restrictions further than the agency’s earlier proposed regulation and sparking fierce backlash from industry groups that are likely to mount a challenge in court.
The rules, finalized under separate authorities including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, come as the Biden administration races to issue its final regulations ahead of the November election and assuage environmental groups and some Democrats who have criticized the White House for softening some of its requirements or extending compliance timelines in recent mandates.
The EPA’s final Clean Air Act rule, published Thursday, sets strict new standards limiting the amount of carbon pollution that fossil fuel plants can emit in an effort to reduce harmful emissions from coal-fired plants and ensure new natural gas plants being brought online utilize modern and more climate-friendly technologies. The rule, which will take effect beginning in 2032, is the first time the federal government has restricted CO2 emissions from existing power plants.
It requires all coal-fired plants and new baseload gas-fired plants operating past 2039 to control 90% of their carbon pollution, which department officials estimate will cut down on 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047, or the equivalent of the annual emissions of 328 million gas-fired cars.
EPA officials expanded the definition of so-called baseload gas plants to apply to all new gas-fired plants that operate more than 40% of the time, going further than its earlier draft rule, which would have applied only to gas-fired plants that operate 50% of the time.
It also moved up by one year the cutoff date for power plants to comply with the 90% efficiency target for carbon pollution from 2040 to 2039.
The stricter requirements come just months after the Biden administration said it would remove existing gas plants from the Clean Air Act rules, sparking criticism from environmental groups.
The EPA’s second final rule strengthens its proposed Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, for coal-fired power plants, tightens emission standards for toxic metals by 67%, and finalizes its proposed 70% reduction in emission standards for mercury from existing lignite-fired plants.
The third rule cracks down on wastewater pollution from coal-fired power plants. The final regulation, established under the Clean Water Act, sets so-called Effluent Limitation Guidelines, or ELGs, on four types of wastewater released by coal-fired power plants: flue gas desulfurization wastewater, bottom ash transport water, combustion residual leachate, and “legacy wastewater” created by the disposal of coal ash. Administration officials estimate this new rule will reduce pollution discharged through wastewater from coal-fired power plants by more than 660 million pounds per year, allowing EPA to deliver on its environmental justice initiatives.
EPA’s fourth final rule, established under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, tasks coal-fired power plants with containing and cleaning up coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal that can pollute air and waterways, groundwater, and drinking water. The rule tasks polluters with ensuring protections for communities living near both active and inactive coal-burning power plants, including taking action on so-called legacy coal ash found on surface impoundments of inactive facilities.
Coal ash also contains materials such as mercury, chromium, and arsenic that have been linked to certain types of cancer and other health problems.
Speaking to reporters on a call to preview the new rules, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the standards are “designed to work with the power sector’s planning processes,” providing compliance timelines that enable them to plan appropriately to meet demand while reducing pollution, though industry groups immediately pushed back on that contention.
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“The path outlined by the EPA today is unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable,” Jim Matheson, the head of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said in a statement, arguing that it views EPA’s power plant rule as a violation of its authority.
“It undermines electric reliability and poses grave consequences for an already stressed electric grid. The American economy can’t succeed without reliable electricity. Smart energy policy recognizes that fundamental truth and works to help keep the lights on,” the statement adds. “This barrage of new EPA rules ignores our nation’s ongoing electric reliability challenges and is the wrong approach at a critical time for our nation’s energy future.”