EPA SAYS IT WILL NOT MANDATE CCS FOR EXISTING PLANTS

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/27/13

The Environmental Protection Agency is not planning to mandate carbon capture and storage as part of its upcoming carbon emissions standards for existing power plants, according to the agency’s top official. In multiple speeches in recent days, Administrator Gina McCarthy has underscored that requiring all coal units to retrofit with CCS technology would be an unrealistic standard. CCS is “really effective as a tool to reduce emissions when it’s designed with the facility itself,” McCarthy reportedly said this week. “It is not seen, at least at this stage, as an add-on that can be used on an existing facility. It doesn’t seem like it’s appropriate at this stage,” McCarthy was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.

Instead of mandating a generation technology, as EPA did under its recently proposed carbon standards for new power plants, the Clean Air Act limits EPA to only issuing broad guidance for states when addressing existing sources. McCarthy clarified that EPA plans to issue guidance to states, which will then pitch individual implementation plans to the agency that will specify which types of emissions technologies they would like to use to comply. “These standards [for new plants] should not indicate that we think that we can retrofit existing facilities by plunking carbon capture and sequestration on the end,” McCarthy told reporters during a Sept. 20 press conference.

EPA Launches Outreach Process

Upon releasing the draft performance standards for new plants Sept. 20, EPA announced that it was also formally launching its outreach process for the upcoming existing standards. President Obama directed the agency to propose that guidance by June 2014 and finalize it one year later under his June climate action plan. “We’ve started the process already in order to meet that timeline,” McCarthy said, adding that the head start will give the agency the “opportunity to explain to the American public that they need not be afraid of the actions we’re taking to address carbon and climate change.” “The process we’ve started is one that involves engagement with states, local governments, industry leaders, NGOs, labor organizations, businesses and others who want to weigh in,” she said.

McCarthy said EPA plans to take into account the emissions reduction plans many states already have in place. “We can learn a lot from ongoing efforts to reduce carbon pollution … we hope to build on their progress that has been going on for years at the state and local level,” she said late last week.