Editor’s Note: See also A Regulatory Antidote for CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) and CRE’s archived Interactive Public Docket: Does CCS Meet BACT Requirements under the DQA?
From: The Hill | Opinion
BY BONNER R. COHEN
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Now Trump is skinning Obama’s cat. Last year, he issued an executive order rescinding the CPP and putting forward his own plan. The EPA estimates the Trump initiative will cover more than 300 coal-fired power plants nationwide, with the goal of providing electric utilities with incentives to keep coal plants operating rather than replacing them with facilities powered by natural gas or renewable energy.
Working with state regulators, the Affordable Clean Energy rule calls for the EPA to develop “candidate technologies” that could be applied to a coal-fired plant to lower emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. From the time the rule is implemented, states would have three years to put together a plan to reduce emissions using one or more of the candidate technologies to achieve what the EPA calls the “best system of emission reduction” (BSER). The EPA would have a year to accept or reject a state’s plan.