Group: EPA’s Coordinated Regulatory Assault on Coal Power Could Push Retirements Beyond 86 GW by 2030
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is readying a regulatory sweep targeting more stringent limits on traditional pollutants that could accelerate coal power plant closures. A coal trade group estimates that even without new rules, 86 GW of coal generation is slated to retire by 2030.
While the U.S. Supreme Court in June curtailed the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants, the EPA is working on other rules in “an integrated and coordinated approach” that will allow the agency to tackle “threats” posed by power plants to clean air, safe water, and healthy land, EPA Administrator Michael Regan has said.
The EPA chief recently told Reuters the agency remains undeterred by the Supreme Court’s constraints. “We want to present the industry with a suite of regulations so that they can make the best long-term investments possible,” the news agency quoted Regan as saying on July 29. “The power sector will … look at the cost benefit of complying with those and more than likely stay with the conclusion that … clean energy is more cost effective for them and for their customers,” he reportedly said.…