The Biden administration is removing existing natural gas facilities from a regulation requiring power plants to cut their emissions, weakening the rule as the agency punts consideration of the controversial provision.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will work to finalize standards to regulate pollution from existing coal and new gas-fired power plants in a rule that will come later this spring, but a regulation covering the entire fleet of natural gas facilities would be considered at a later date.
“As EPA works towards final standards to cut climate pollution from existing coal and new gas-fired power plants later this spring, the Agency is taking a new, comprehensive approach to cover the entire fleet of natural gas-fired turbines, as well as cover more pollutants including climate, toxic and criteria air pollution,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
In the same statement, the administrator stated that the EPA will immediately begin a “robust” engagement process with stakeholders to create a more “durable, flexible, and affordable” proposal.
The move comes as the Biden administration is expected to water down other pollution regulations, such as one that would limit tailpipe emissions.
Shortly after the news of the move, climate hawk Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) criticized the move, arguing it made “no sense” to exclude existing gas power plants if they contribute to most future carbon emissions from the power sector.
“Making a rule that applies only to coal, which is dying out on its own, and to new gas power plants that are not yet built, is not how we are going to reach climate safety,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “EPA promises that some future proposed rule will address these emissions, but time is not on our side, and the agency’s generally lethargic rulemaking pace does not leave one optimistic.”
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It’s unlikely that the rule will be finalized anytime soon, leaving open the question of whether or not the regulation will get the ax under another Trump presidency if the former president takes the White House in November.
The provision regulating existing gas plants was added to the proposed rule late last year, garnering opposition from utilities, which pointed to technological shortcomings and argued the rule would undermine grid reliability.
