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EPA Schedules One Hearing on Proposed ACE Rule

September 12, 2018

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 10 announced it will hold one hearing to get input from the public and stakeholders on its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, the Trump administration’s replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP).

The EPA said it has scheduled an all-day hearing October 1 at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago, which is home to EPA’s Region 5 headquarters. The agency did not rule out the possibility of more hearings. The Clean Air Act requires the agency to hold at least one hearing on proposed regulations, if requested, and comments received during any formal hearing are noted as part of the official regulatory record.

The Trump administration held one public hearing and three listening sessions after it said it would repeal the CPP, which was never implemented and remains in legal limbo. The Obama administration held four hearings after it proposed the CPP.

The Sierra Club, which along with other environmental groups has been critical of the ACE rule, in a statement charged the EPA—specifically agency head Andrew Wheeler—is fearful of how the proposed regulation is being viewed by the public.…

Several States Urge Federal Court to Rule on Clean Power Plan

September 6, 2018

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Seventeen states have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to further delay the court’s decision on legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan.

In a filing with the court on September 4, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, noted that the case—State of West Virginia, et. al. v EPA (No. 15-1363)—claimed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken “undue advantage” of the now 18-month-long abeyance granted to the agency by the federal court to allow it to review the rule.

The states were joined by the District of Columbia, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and South Miami, as well as Florida’s Broward County.

The EPA is “prolonging the delay through a series of notices that do not come close to fulfilling EPA’s statutory obligations,” the filing claims.…

Coal’s ACE in the Hole? New Rule Still Faces Headwinds

August 29, 2018

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The Trump administration has extended a potential lifeline to coal-fired power plants with its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. Now the debate is about how much the plan will actually help coal generation.

Energy analysts and other industry experts who spoke with POWER on August 28 say the new rule, which would give individual states the power to determine how to regulate power plant emissions—or whether to regulate them at all—may not make a difference when it comes to the market for coal-based power.

Economic forces, which have increasingly favored natural gas and also renewable energy sources in recent years, have contributed to the fall of coal. And while Trump said the ACE rule is a replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), the CPP has never been implemented due to protracted legal challenges, including a continuing stay of the rule by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other regulations dealing with power plant emissions, including the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), along with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, remain in force and continue to impact power plant operators.…

EPA Rampaging on Coal Ash Rule Despite Groundwater Concerns

April 27, 2018

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Despite pleas by environmental groups for more time to review recent dumps of groundwater monitoring data from power companies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forging ahead to finalize a proposed overhaul of the Obama administration’s 2015 final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule.

The EPA’s 45-day comment period for the agency’s March 1 proposed rule, which includes more than a dozen significant changes to the 2015 action, is slated to end on April 30. Most of the rule’s changes focus on providing more regulatory flexibility to owners of coal ash landfills or surface impoundments, and they explicitly give states the authority to operate CCR permit programs “in lieu of federal regulations,” as long as they are agency-approved. According to the EPA, those changes are expected to save industry between $ 32 million and $ 100 million per year.

However, the proposal also seeks to address four provisions that a federal court remanded to the agency in June 2016. Those changes, for example, propose a clarification of the type and magnitude of non-groundwater releases that would require a coal plant to comply with corrective action procedure, and it adds boron to a list of constituents that may trigger corrective action.…

California PUC Will Rule Soon on Diablo Canyon’s Future

November 28, 2017

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The fate of Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) Diablo Canyon Power Plant is expected to be decided by year-end, with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) set to hear final arguments about the plant’s future on November 28.

The 2.2-GW nuclear plant has operated near Avila Beach, California, since 1985. A judge in early November supported PG&E’s plan to retire the plant’s two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water reactors when their federal operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025.

PG&E has said several factors entered into its decision to shutter the plant, which is the last operating nuclear facility in California. On its website, the utility says, “California’s energy landscape is changing dramatically. State policies that focus on renewables and energy efficiency, coupled with projected lower customer electricity demand in the future, will result in a significant reduction in the need for electricity produced by Diablo Canyon Power Plant past 2025.”

Proponents of keeping the plant in operation argue it was built to last a century.…

D.C. Circuit Halts Clean Power Plan, Mercury Rule Litigation

April 29, 2017

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In two separate actions over the past 24 hours, the D.C. Circuit granted the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) request to suspend cases challenging the Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

The orders are the latest in a series of similar actions over the past month by the D.C. Circuit that paused other major cases challenging Obama-era environmental rules to give the Trump administration more time to review them.

On April 11, the court granted the EPA’s motion to indefinitely delay a decision on challenges to the agency’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in Murray Energy Corp. v. EPA (No. 15-1385). On April 24, it shelved oral arguments in challenges to the EPA’s rule that requires 36 states to revise emissions exemptions in their state implementation plans for startup, shutdown, and malfunction events at power plants and other facilities. That case, Walter Coke, Inc., et al v. EPA (No. 15-1166), may be reopened depending on the action the EPA decides to take.…