The Joe Biden administration announced a plan on Thursday to cut CO2 emissions from power plants, particularly gas and coal, starting in 2030, long-awaited moves under US climate commitments.
This new regulation includes, among other things, the obligation for certain coal plants to capture their CO2 emissions, instead of releasing them into the atmosphere.
If it goes into effect, it will be the first time the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed restrictions on CO2 emissions from existing plants. Electricity production accounts for about a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Like a previous attempt under then-President Barack Obama, these rules will likely be challenged in court.
They have the potential to prevent the emission of “more than 600 million tons of carbon by 2042,” which is equivalent to the emissions of “half of all American vehicles in one year,” said EPA chief Michael scold.
He warned that they will entail a closure of coal plants, but assured that they will have “an insignificant impact on electricity prices.”
Specifically, these proposed rules vary depending on the type of plant, its level of use, or its eventual expected closure date.
The agency relies above all on CO2 capture and storage techniques, which are still not very widespread and expensive.
The government is betting on its development after achieving the adoption of a law (Inflation Reduction Act, IRA) last year that includes greater tax benefits for power plants that use these techniques.
A first category is related to thermal power plants that use steam turbines, particularly coal power plants, but also fuel oil. According to the new rules, the plants that plan to continue after 2040 must install technologies that allow 90% of the CO2 emitted from 2030 to be captured.
Instead, no restrictions were placed on coal plants shut down by 2032, or even 2035, for those operating at less than 20% capacity.
The EPA indicates that the installation of these technologies will take time and will be mainly profitable for the plants that operate longer.
series of actions
Two routes are proposed for gas-fired power plants that use combustion turbines: on the one hand, CO2 capture, and on the other, low-carbon hydrogen.
New used gas plants with strong capacity must capture 90% of their CO2 by 2035, or use low-carbon hydrogen at 30% by 2032, and 96% by 2039. The same rules will apply for larger ones. existing gas plants.
Michael Regan assured that these proposals are “100% in line” with Biden’s commitments, who promised to produce carbon-neutral electricity from 2035. They are part of “a series of actions,” he said.
In 2015, Obama had already announced a plan to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants, which was finally blocked before taking effect. Last year, the Supreme Court limited the EPA’s ability to act.
According to its ruling, general rules that would have the effect of forcing a transition from coal to other energy sources are beyond the agency’s authority.
The actions taken Thursday follow the EPA’s “traditional approach” to acting under the Clean Air Act, Regan said. “We are convinced that we are within those limits,” she added.
Before being finalized, the new rules must be submitted to a period of public debate.
Techniques still confidential
These measures “show that the era of unlimited pollution from power plants is over,” Dan Lashof of the World Resources Institute told AFP, though he regretted that the proposal did not go further when it comes to power plants. gas.
In addition, some environmental groups are harsh critics of carbon capture and storage (CCS) techniques, which, they fear, would allow polluting plants to keep running rather than switch directly to renewables.
For now, there are only about 35 CO2 capture and storage sites in the world for industrial processes or for electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency.
Its total annual capture capacity is around 45 million tons of CO2, when total emissions amount to 37,000 million tons per year in the world.
In 2022, about 60% of US electricity production came from gas (40%) or coal (20%) plants, according to the US Energy Information Agency, followed by nuclear (18%) and renewable energies (21.5%).