Released August 11, 2023 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Electric grid operators, electric trade groups and a coalition of unions representing workers in and around the electricity sector criticized three draft rules issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would set new source performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new, modified and reconstructed fossil-fueled power plants. Public comments on the proposed rules, which were issued this spring, closed August 8. For more on the draft rule, see May 12, 2023, article - EPA Issues Draft Rule Regulating Power Plant Emissions.
The draft rules are a key component of President Joe Biden's pledge to eliminate carbon emissions from electric generation by 2035 as a first step to decarbonizing the entire U.S. economy. Biden is the third president trying to enact first-ever carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction rules for electric generators. For more on the history of this heavily litigated issue, see July 1, 2022, article - Supreme Court Kicks Clean Air Case Back to EPA. Electric generators account for approximately 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to a late-2022 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
One aspect of the rules would require large existing natural gas-fired plants that run at least 50% of the time to install carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) by 2035, or co-fire with 30% hydrogen by 2032.
Two Washington, D.C.-based electricity trade groups--the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the American Public Power Association (APPA)--objected to the proposed rules. The groups criticized the EPA's statement that utilities could comply with parts of the rule by installing CCUS at affected coal- and gas-fired units, or by switching to low-carbon hydrogen.
In comments filed this week, the EEI said the agency's thinking was "not legally or technically sound. Electric companies are not confident that the new technologies EPA has designated to serve as the basis for proposed standards for new and existing fossil-based generation will satisfy performance and cost requirements on the timelines that EPA projects." The EEI represents companies serving about 75% of the nation.
In an article from Reuters, EPA officials defended CCUS and hydrogen, noting that last year's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidizes those technologies, makes them cost-effective and viable. CCUS has been installed on a few coal-fired power plants in North America, including the W.A. Parish Power Station in Thompson, Texas, and the Boundary Dam Power Station in Saskatchewan, Canada.
APPA, which has more than 2,000 community-owned members across the country, said it was concerned the draft rules, if enacted in their current form, would impede its members' ability to provide electricity that was reliable and affordable. The organization said it "recognizes the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change and points out that public power utilities reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 31% from 2005 to 2022, which contributed to the electric generating industry being the industrial sector with the largest amount of GHG emissions reductions in that period."
A third electric trade group, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) (Arlington, Virginia), which represents 900 member-owned electric cooperatives, asked the EPA to withdraw the proposed rule, saying it would compromise electric reliability and affordability, said NRECA Chief Executive Jim Matheson.
A group of unions representing workers in and around the electricity sector, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IAB), the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IABSORI), the United Mine Workers (UMW) and the Transportation Communications Union (TCA), didn't go as far as NRECA. But the unions said the draft rules "suffer from several legal and technical deficiencies sufficient to justify a reproposed rule."
The unions represent members who work directly or indirectly at over 500 coal- and gas-fired generating units that could be affected by the draft rules.
While not commenting on the use of hydrogen in power generation, the unions criticized the draft rules on four grounds:
Comments filed in June by the National Mining Association (NMA) estimated that the rules, if enacted as drafted, would lead to the premature closure of up to 155 gigawatts (GW) of electric generation capacity by 2032 that were not already slated for retirement.
The mining group, and others, pointed out that the proposed greenhouse gas rules are "also intertwined with other EPA 'power sector strategy' rules, including the Clean Water Act effluent limitations guidelines, as well as the ongoing comment period for EPA's residual risk and technology review for the Mercury Air Toxics Standards that end(ed) on June 23, 2023. Combined, these proposed rules are 304 Federal Register pages and are accompanied by hundreds of technical support documents and detailed economic analyses and modeling that require extensive review with our members."
"As the agency is aware," the NMA continued, "trade associations and their members invest significant time and resources in reviewing regulatory proposals that impact their businesses. Overlapping regulatory proposals with comprehensive changes to how an entire sector is allowed to operate requires reasonably staggered comment deadlines."
Electrical grid operators, such as PJM, SPP, ERCOT and MISO, criticized the proposed rules on electric reliability grounds. In comments submitted August 8, the groups wrote they were "concerned about the chilling impact of the Proposed Rules on investment required to retain and maintain existing units that are needed to provide key attributes and grid services before the compliance date required by the rule."
The grid managers continued: "As the penetration of renewable resources continues to increase, the grid will need to rely even more on generation capable of providing critical reliability attributes. With continued and potentially accelerated retirements of dispatchable generation, supply of these reliability attributes will dwindle to concerning levels." The groups added they were concerned "about a scenario in which ... needed technologies are not widely commercialized in time to balance out large amounts of retirements."
Numerous other comments, some positive and some negative, also were filed by individuals and electric utilities. Several groups criticizing the draft rules asked for at least 60 more days to conduct a more thorough analysis of them.
Outside the Washington Beltway, the Verendrye Electric Cooperative of Velva, North Dakota, wrote to oppose the proposed rules as "unworkable," claiming CCUS and hydrogen as a power plant fuel were "promising technologies but are not yet commercially viable or available in many parts of the country."
Verendrye General Manager Randy Hauck wrote, "I join electric cooperatives across the country in standing firmly against EPA's proposal. It would undermine decades of work to reliably keep the lights on across the nation and could lead to life-threatening blackouts. It doesn't work for my electric co-op, my community, and our nation's economy."
Not all comments received by the EPA criticized the draft rules. Broadly speaking, environmental organizations and individuals commended the agency and urged it to move forward. One letter from a group of environmental organizations urged EEI to help the EPA craft better rules rather than undermine its work.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
The draft rules are a key component of President Joe Biden's pledge to eliminate carbon emissions from electric generation by 2035 as a first step to decarbonizing the entire U.S. economy. Biden is the third president trying to enact first-ever carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction rules for electric generators. For more on the history of this heavily litigated issue, see July 1, 2022, article - Supreme Court Kicks Clean Air Case Back to EPA. Electric generators account for approximately 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to a late-2022 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
One aspect of the rules would require large existing natural gas-fired plants that run at least 50% of the time to install carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) by 2035, or co-fire with 30% hydrogen by 2032.
Two Washington, D.C.-based electricity trade groups--the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the American Public Power Association (APPA)--objected to the proposed rules. The groups criticized the EPA's statement that utilities could comply with parts of the rule by installing CCUS at affected coal- and gas-fired units, or by switching to low-carbon hydrogen.
In comments filed this week, the EEI said the agency's thinking was "not legally or technically sound. Electric companies are not confident that the new technologies EPA has designated to serve as the basis for proposed standards for new and existing fossil-based generation will satisfy performance and cost requirements on the timelines that EPA projects." The EEI represents companies serving about 75% of the nation.
In an article from Reuters, EPA officials defended CCUS and hydrogen, noting that last year's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidizes those technologies, makes them cost-effective and viable. CCUS has been installed on a few coal-fired power plants in North America, including the W.A. Parish Power Station in Thompson, Texas, and the Boundary Dam Power Station in Saskatchewan, Canada.
APPA, which has more than 2,000 community-owned members across the country, said it was concerned the draft rules, if enacted in their current form, would impede its members' ability to provide electricity that was reliable and affordable. The organization said it "recognizes the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change and points out that public power utilities reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 31% from 2005 to 2022, which contributed to the electric generating industry being the industrial sector with the largest amount of GHG emissions reductions in that period."
A third electric trade group, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) (Arlington, Virginia), which represents 900 member-owned electric cooperatives, asked the EPA to withdraw the proposed rule, saying it would compromise electric reliability and affordability, said NRECA Chief Executive Jim Matheson.
A group of unions representing workers in and around the electricity sector, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IAB), the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IABSORI), the United Mine Workers (UMW) and the Transportation Communications Union (TCA), didn't go as far as NRECA. But the unions said the draft rules "suffer from several legal and technical deficiencies sufficient to justify a reproposed rule."
The unions represent members who work directly or indirectly at over 500 coal- and gas-fired generating units that could be affected by the draft rules.
While not commenting on the use of hydrogen in power generation, the unions criticized the draft rules on four grounds:
- The agency's methods for determining the Best System of Emissions Reduction (BSER) for coal-fired units in the four subcategories chosen by the EPA
- The imposition of new federally enforceable retirement dates for the widely disparate groups of units of differing ages, generation capacities, capacity factors and other characteristics
- The lack of evidence supporting the EPA's choice of CCUS as a technology that, as the agency asserted, "has been adequately demonstrated," and
- The generation shifting that inevitably would result from the implementation of the proposed guidelines
Comments filed in June by the National Mining Association (NMA) estimated that the rules, if enacted as drafted, would lead to the premature closure of up to 155 gigawatts (GW) of electric generation capacity by 2032 that were not already slated for retirement.
The mining group, and others, pointed out that the proposed greenhouse gas rules are "also intertwined with other EPA 'power sector strategy' rules, including the Clean Water Act effluent limitations guidelines, as well as the ongoing comment period for EPA's residual risk and technology review for the Mercury Air Toxics Standards that end(ed) on June 23, 2023. Combined, these proposed rules are 304 Federal Register pages and are accompanied by hundreds of technical support documents and detailed economic analyses and modeling that require extensive review with our members."
"As the agency is aware," the NMA continued, "trade associations and their members invest significant time and resources in reviewing regulatory proposals that impact their businesses. Overlapping regulatory proposals with comprehensive changes to how an entire sector is allowed to operate requires reasonably staggered comment deadlines."
Electrical grid operators, such as PJM, SPP, ERCOT and MISO, criticized the proposed rules on electric reliability grounds. In comments submitted August 8, the groups wrote they were "concerned about the chilling impact of the Proposed Rules on investment required to retain and maintain existing units that are needed to provide key attributes and grid services before the compliance date required by the rule."
The grid managers continued: "As the penetration of renewable resources continues to increase, the grid will need to rely even more on generation capable of providing critical reliability attributes. With continued and potentially accelerated retirements of dispatchable generation, supply of these reliability attributes will dwindle to concerning levels." The groups added they were concerned "about a scenario in which ... needed technologies are not widely commercialized in time to balance out large amounts of retirements."
Numerous other comments, some positive and some negative, also were filed by individuals and electric utilities. Several groups criticizing the draft rules asked for at least 60 more days to conduct a more thorough analysis of them.
Outside the Washington Beltway, the Verendrye Electric Cooperative of Velva, North Dakota, wrote to oppose the proposed rules as "unworkable," claiming CCUS and hydrogen as a power plant fuel were "promising technologies but are not yet commercially viable or available in many parts of the country."
Verendrye General Manager Randy Hauck wrote, "I join electric cooperatives across the country in standing firmly against EPA's proposal. It would undermine decades of work to reliably keep the lights on across the nation and could lead to life-threatening blackouts. It doesn't work for my electric co-op, my community, and our nation's economy."
Not all comments received by the EPA criticized the draft rules. Broadly speaking, environmental organizations and individuals commended the agency and urged it to move forward. One letter from a group of environmental organizations urged EEI to help the EPA craft better rules rather than undermine its work.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
