{"id":329726,"date":"2024-05-23T12:05:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T10:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=329726"},"modified":"2024-05-23T12:05:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T10:05:15","slug":"epas-clean-power-plan-rule-prioritizes-net-zero-over-grid-reliability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=329726","title":{"rendered":"EPA\u2019s Clean Power Plan Rule Prioritizes Net-Zero Over Grid Reliability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Gabriella Hoffman<\/a> Christian Palich<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal and natural gas plants provide 60%<\/a> of the U.S.\u2019 affordable, reliable, and baseload power. In a time of increased<\/a> electricity demand, America needs to double down on harnessing these sources\u2014not abandon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\u2019s recently finalized<\/a> Clean Power Plan 2.0 (CPP) rule, however, takes the country in the wrong direction. Under this regulation, one that is arguably illegal<\/a>, existing coal and new natural gas power plants will be mandated to install emissions control technologies that aren\u2019t yet commercially viable. Plants that don\u2019t comply risk permanent closure. This unrealistic mandate is advanced under the guise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 90<\/a>% by 2032.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration should nix this rule altogether given its many drawbacks to the American economy, all of which come with no environmental gain and are based on dubious authority. If it doesn\u2019t reverse course, a forthcoming<\/a> Congressional resolution of disapproval and newly-filed lawsuits<\/a> could stop overreach here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EPA\u2019s limited authority over-regulating greenhouse gas emissions was affirmed in the landmark June 2022 West Virginia vs. EPA<\/em><\/a> decision. That case challenged the original Obama-era Clean Power Plan, and the Supreme Court ruled the EPA lacked the statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. No change has been made to grant the EPA more authority over greenhouse gasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the Clean Air Act says the EPA must craft achievable emission limitations standards that have been \u201cadequately demonstrated.\u201d Yet, the Carbon Capture technology that would be relied upon under this rule has never been \u201cadequately demonstrated\u201d on the scale that EPA is attempting to require.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EPA rule would lead to grid instability because operators will be forced to adopt intermittent, unreliable, and costly sources like wind and solar. According to the Department of Energy<\/a>, wind is only reliable 33.5%<\/a> of the year while solar is dependable for just 24.9% of the time. Wind energy generation decreased<\/a> for the first time last year. The federal government reports wind generation hit maturity with slower recorded wind speeds, despite adding<\/a> 6.2 gigawatts of new wind capacity. Solar energy also had a bad 2023 with over 100 companies<\/a> going bankrupt and expensive electricity rates. Many planned solar plants, including those receiving Inflation Reduction Act subsidies, are predicted to be canceled<\/a> this year due to price collapse<\/a> and waning demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned<\/a> in its December 2023 Long-Term Assessment report that rigid policies like CPP 2.0 \u201chave the potential to influence generators\u201d to close down their plants. The risk of massive electric reliability issues across the country is by no means a political talking point. In 2023, FERC Commissioner Danly stated in a hearing to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that \u201cthere is a looming reliability crisis in our electricity markets.\u201d In that same hearing, Commissioner Christie said<\/a> \u201cThe United States is heading for a very catastrophic situation in terms of reliability.\u201d These are the experts sounding the alarm that we need more grid capacity from baseload sources, not intermittent ones, or we could face not just loss of commerce but a loss of human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPP 2.0 promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2032 by mandating coal and natural gas plants install carbon capture and storage (CCS) or face closure. But the EPA is downplaying the nascent technology\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCS, as it stands, is expensive and will diminish coal and natural gas plant efficiency by at least 14%<\/a>. Moreover, natural gas and coal plants retrofitted with first-generation carbon capture technology reportedly can expect a 50%<\/a> and 70 to 80%<\/a> increase in electricity costs, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., we already have highly effective emissions technology that enables coal plants to run in an incredibly environmental way. For example, just look at how states that rely heavily on coal have almost none of the air quality issues of China or India. That\u2019s because of our emissions control technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s call this rule out for what it really is: It\u2019s a vehicle to punish coal country which has left the president\u2019s party in droves over the last 20 years, in favor of radical environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) donors who are a major constituency of this administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finalized Clean Power Plan 2.0 rule is a bad deal for American energy producers and consumers. Congress should immediately pull the plug on this rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriella Hoffman is director of Independent Women\u2019s Forum\u2019s Center for Energy and Conservation (iwf.org\/CEC) and host of the District of Conservation podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Palich is Vice President of Government & External Affairs at Eagle Forge Services Company, one of the nation\u2019s largest coal producers and a board advisory member for IWF\u2019s Center for Energy and Conservation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coal and natural gas plants provide 60% of the U.S.\u2019 affordable, reliable, and baseload power. In a time of increased electricity demand, America needs to double down on harnessing these sources\u2014not abandon them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":329728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691828745,691820659,691821464,691822844,691818154],"class_list":["post-329726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carbon-capture-and-storage-ccs-2","tag-coal-plants","tag-environmental-protection-agency-epa","tag-natural-gas-plants","tag-net-zero","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1nMa","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":338797,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338797","url_meta":{"origin":329726,"position":0},"title":"New EPA Rules Could Dangerously Close Baseload Power Plants","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/08\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Recent extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Beryl that left more than two million Texas households and business without electricity for days and then went on to flood parts of the Midwest and New England, has drawn renewed attention to the vulnerabilities of America\u2019s power grids. 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