Today's Federal Register and last Friday's FR contain important Obama Administration rulemaking decisions necessary to put greenhouse gas emission limitations and rules into effect for new electric generating plants using coal, petroleum coke or natural gas.
Here are the latest proposed New Source Performance Standards for power plants:
Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions From New Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units
EPA is also withdrawing portions of a previous proposal which conflict with the latest proposal.
Public comments are due March 10, 2014, but comments will be more effective if submitted in time for OMB review due by February 7, 2014, according to the FR notice.
EPA will hold a public hearing:
Public Hearing. A public hearing will be held on January 28, 2014,
at the William Jefferson Clinton Building East, Room 1153 (Map Room),
1201 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington DC 20004. The hearing will
convene at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) and end at 8:00 p.m.
(Eastern Standard Time). Please contact Pamela Garrett at (919) (541-
7966) or at garrett.pamela@epa.gov to register to speak at the hearing.
Here is the gist of this latest proposal as announced by EPA to achieve the required Best System of Emission Reduction which will require carbon capture and sequestration for new coal and petroleum coke power plants:
This action proposes a standard of performance for utility boilers and IGCC
units based on partial implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the BSER. The proposed emission limit for those sources is 1,100 lb CO2 /MWh.
This action also proposes standards of performance for natural gas-fired stationary combustion turbines based on modern, efficient natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) technology as the BSER. The proposed emission limits for those sources are 1,000 lb CO2 /MWh for larger units and 1,100 lb CO for smaller units. At this time, the EPA is not
proposing standards of performance for modified or reconstructed sources.
Last Friday, EPA issued a final rule effective March 4, 2014 to exclude liquid carbon dioxide from hazardous waste requirements under certain conditions:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is revising the regulations for hazardous waste management under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to conditionally exclude carbon dioxide (CO2) streams that are hazardous from the definition of hazardous waste, provided these hazardous CO2
streams are captured from emission sources, are injected into Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI wells for purposes of geologic sequestration (GS), and meet certain other conditions. EPA is taking this action because the Agency believes that the management of these CO2 streams, when meeting certain conditions, does not present a substantial risk to human health or the environment, and therefore additional regulation pursuant to RCRA's hazardous waste regulations is unnecessary. EPA expects that this amendment will substantially reduce the uncertainty associated with identifying these CO2 streams under RCRA subtitle C, and will also facilitate the deployment of GS by providing additional regulatory certainty.
In today's rule, EPA said:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency)
is revising the regulations for hazardous waste management under the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to conditionally exclude
carbon dioxide (CO2) streams that are hazardous from the
definition of hazardous waste, provided these hazardous CO2
streams are captured from emission sources, are injected into
Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI wells for purposes of
geologic sequestration (GS), and meet certain other conditions. EPA is
taking this action because the Agency believes that the management of
these CO2 streams, when meeting certain conditions, does not
present a substantial risk to human health or the environment, and therefore
additional regulation pursuant to RCRA's hazardous waste regulations is
unnecessary. EPA expects that this amendment will substantially reduce
the uncertainty associated with identifying these CO2
streams under RCRA subtitle C, and will also facilitate the deployment
of GS by providing additional regulatory certainty.
The rule excluding liquid carbon dioxide from hazwaste regulation is availablehere.
Here is EPA's web site on greenhouse gas emission control from power plants, although today's rule proposal is not yet incorporated at that site.
2:44 PM PT: One thing to realize about a proposed New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) under the Clean Air Act Section 111. A proposed standard is immediately effective and binding on any entity that wants to get a permit to construct a new power plant after the proposed rule publication.
Under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act:
"(2) The term "new Source" means any stationary source, the construction or modification of which is commenced after the publication of regulations (or, if earlier, proposed regulations) prescribing a standard of performance under this section which will be applicable to such source."
This means that today's publication of this proposed standard is already binding on any proposed new coal, petroleum coke, or natural gas fired power plant as of today's date of publication.
This is President Obama getting environmental protection done in a manner that Bill Clinton never even considered and that G.W. Bush would never consider.....even though there has been no change in the Clean Air Act since 1990 during all of these Presidential administrations.