EPA Finalizes Impractical and Discriminatory Power Generation Rules, Jeopardizing U.S. Power Grid

BISMARCK - On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced four final rulemakings regarding fossil fuel electric generation. These rules, first announced individually in 2023, will dramatically tighten emissions regulations for fossil fuel generation and dangerously degrade the state of America's electrical power grid. The Biden administration has specifically targeted coal power plants in these regulations and created unrealistic and unworkable emission reduction goals with the intention of driving coal-fired power plants off the nation's electrical grid, which is at its most fragile state in decades.

"The Biden administration has been infiltrated by radical environmentalists and has outsourced its policy making decisions to them versus the engineers running the grid," said Cramer. "These rules are fundamentally impractical, unworkable, and discriminatory against the very fossil fuels which power the country. Our grid cannot operate off of solar and wind alone, as it relies on the coal, natural gas, and fossil fuels liberals love to demonize. The intended goal of these rules is obvious: to regulate North Dakota's coal industry out of existence at the expense of American consumers and reliable power generation."

Clean Power Plan 2.0

Existing coal generation assets would be required to install carbon capture equipment that is not yet commercially available or shutdown. The regulation also sets arbitrary operating limits on new natural gas generation before imposing carbon capture requirements on those facilities too. President Biden learned nothing from the Supreme Court's landmark West Virginia vs. EPA decision and is again trying to circumvent the law by mandating unrealistic standards in the hopes of shutting down coal generation. This rule would seriously endanger America's electrical grid at a time it can least afford it. An additional rulemaking for existing natural gas generating facilities is forthcoming.

Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS)

The new, stricter MATS rule mandates coal power plants to adopt expensive and yet unproven technology to meet unrealistic limits, including elimination of lignite coals subcategory supported under past administrations. Coal power plants have already made significant progress in limiting pollutants when the MATS rulemaking was updated in 2020 under the Trump administration. Coal plants, which have already made significant capital investments to outfit their facilities with technologies to reduce pollutants, are now being told they have to comply with new regulations not based in sound science but rather radical policy preferences that are set on the elimination of electricity sourced from coal power plants.

Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) Rule

Coal plants with legacy ponds or CCR management units will need to comply with numerous regulatory requirements on an expedited compliance timeline and will incur compliance costs. These costs will be passed along to American citizens and at worst will result in higher compliance costs that will force many dispatchable power plants such as coal into early retirement seriously degrading the nation's electrical grid.

Coal Plant Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards (ELGs)

While coal power plant owners spent millions of dollars complying with 2015 and 2020 ELGs, this rulemaking forces coal power plants to change plans and install costly and unproven technologies to meet unrealistic limits.

The Biden administration has made it clear affordable, reliable, and dispatchable power that coal plants provide is no longer needed. These rulemakings will result in a more fragile electrical grid at a time America can least afford it. The North American Electric Reliability Council has warned policy makers repeatedly that baseload generation assets such as coal, are being retired at an alarming pace with no plan to find suitable replacement for the firm power that coal and natural gas plants provide.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.