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Michael Regan, President Joe Biden's pick to lead the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pledged to start afresh on
tackling carbon dioxide limits for power plants after a federal
appeals court overturned the rule on the books in January.
"The reality is that this presents a significant opportunity for
the [EPA] to take a clean slate and look at how we best move
forward," Regan told Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican
from West Virginia who chaired Regan's 3 February Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee confirmation hearing.
Capito asked Regan whether Biden intends to draft a newer
version of the Obama administration's 2015 Clean Power
Plan—which set the first carbon dioxide limits for existing
coal-fired power plants. However, she stopped short of mentioning
that the 2019 Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which replaced
the Clean Power Plan, was
overturned in January by the US Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit.
The ACE rule, which President Donald Trump's EPA crafted, was
based on a list of technologies the agency identified for upgrading
plant equipment and improving operations. In contrast, the Clean
Power Plan imposed a numerical limit on carbon emissions for
coal-fired plants, while offering flexibility to meet this limit
through energy efficiency improvements as well as by trading carbon
offsets and fuel switching.
Regan said he would follow the science, harness the Clean Air
Act's authority, and secure buy-ins from stakeholders and
communities affected by any action, whether it be in the form of
rulemaking or voluntary, that the agency takes. "It's my
understanding that we have to take a look at what was the plan for
the Clean Power Plan and what were the plans for the ACE rule,"
Regan said.
There are numerous examples of success and failures in past
attempts, but Regan said: "I am not going to look backwards, but
look forward."
Biden has pledged to make the US power sector
carbon-free by 2035, as part of the US commitment to meet the
global climate treaty, the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Impact on coal communities
Capito was especially concerned about the impact any new carbon
regulations would have on West Virginia's coal industry, which has
taken a pounding as a result of low natural gas prices and greater
penetration by renewables. She was especially concerned about the
appointment of former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy as the White
House's domestic "climate czar," a position without congressional
scrutiny.
"It still stings," Capito said repeatedly over McCarthy's
refusal to visit West Virginia when EPA was crafting the Clean
Power Plan.
Regan acknowledged Biden has laid out a very ambitious
climate plan that requires an all hands-on approach, but said
he would work towards achieving the climate goal. "The president
has an aggressive climate agenda that takes a whole of government
approach," Regan said. "We have been instructed not to leave any
community behind."
Drawing on his experience as North Carolina's top environment
regulator, Regan reassured Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican-North
Dakota, that he was committed to working with states. He agreed
with him that uncertainty and litigation over rules makes states'
work harder, not easier.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat-Rhode Island, asked Regan
to make sure that EPA includes discussion of carbon capture and
sequestration technology in any rule capping greenhouse gas
emissions. The prior administration axed carbon capture and storage
as an option for new coal-fired plants when it began rewriting
Obama-era rules.
Coal's declining share
The share of coal-fired generation in the US power mix has
continued to slip despite the prior administration's efforts to
shore it up through rulemakings. Under Trump, the Department of
Energy ordered a review of energy grid reliability policies by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which came to the conclusion
that extra compensation for coal-fired power plants in order to
ensure reliability was not necessary.
By the end of 2019, coal-fired generation's share of the US
power mix was 21%, or 229 million kilowatts, declining from a high
of 42% in 1990, according to the US Energy Information
Administration.
According to IHS Markit's North American Power Market Outlook,
at least 90 gigawatts (GW) of grid-connected coal-fired capacity in
the Lower 48 states has either been retired or is committing to
retiring by the end of 2020. And another 65 GW has been committed
to or is expected to retire by 2030, the report said.
IHS Markit analysts expect the pace of coal-fired retirements to
continue as the Biden administration imposes more stringent carbon
caps on power plants to reach its 100% carbon-free power sector
goal by 2035.
Posted 03 February 2021 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate and Energy Research Analyst
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