Full Title: The Twilight of Coal-Fired Power? The EPA's New Standards for Greenhouse Gases
Author(s): Rob Barnett
Publisher(s): Bloomberg Government
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The Environmental Protection Agency last month published a proposed rule setting greenhouse-gas emissions standards for fossil-fuel power plants. It represents the first federally mandated numerical limit for carbon dioxide emissions for power plants.
New coal, natural gas, and oil power plants would be required to meet a standard of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour (lbs CO2/MWh). Peaking power plants, typically smaller plants that burn natural gas, would be exempt from the rule.
This Bloomberg Government Study finds:
- New coal plants would effectively be banned because their emission rate is almost double that of the proposed standard.
- The new policy probably wouldn’t shift current investment patterns in the power sector. Natural-gas plants already have a compelling price advantage.
- Although the rule makes room to build coal plants that incorporate carbon capture and storage technology, coal plants with CCS probably won’t be built unless Congress enacts new programs to subsidize them.