Following the landmark US Supreme Court ruling that limited the government’s ability to curb the pollution that is causing global warming, Joe Biden’s administration intends to use other regulatory tools in hopes of achieving similar goals.
A key part of the plan is to further curb other pollutants that coal-fired power plants emit, such as soot, mercury and nitrous oxides — a move that will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“While the court has allied itself with special interests in trying to turn the country back, it hasn’t taken away from the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases and protect people from pollution,” Gina said. McCarthy, the White House climate change adviser, in a statement.
White House officials said they believe President Biden’s goal of halving emissions by the end of this decade and totally eliminating fossil fuel emissions from the energy sector by 2035 remains achievable.
The falling cost of renewables like wind and solar will help, government officials said, as will the growing number of policies at the state and city levels to combat climate change, along with new EPA regulations.
Still, the federal government’s piecemeal approach, which is still taking shape, could make it more difficult to achieve its goals, many observers said. Power plants that burn fossil fuels are one of the biggest contributors of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is rapidly warming the planet.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, which found the EPA does not have broad authority to transform the country’s electrical system by reducing its use of fossil fuels, stripped the Biden administration of a powerful tool, according to energy experts. The decision did not reduce the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, but only allowed stricter policies to regulate how each power plant works.
That means the government’s replacement strategies are unlikely to spur a rapid shift to clean energy unless the White House acts quickly and aggressively, experts said. “This year and the start of next year are critically important to whether the targets the government has set — both for the energy sector and the economy as a whole — will be achievable,” said John Larsen, partner at Rhodium Group, a energy research and consultancy.
Larsen said the Biden administration will have to enact “layers and layers” of new policies, rather than relying on a single overarching program. He added: “They need to act soon to really make these wheels turn.”
In an interview this week, Joseph Goffman, appointed by Biden to head the EPA, said the agency intends to issue a proposed regulation early next year that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. Around the same time, the EPA will issue a proposed regulation to reduce emissions from new gas-fired plants, he said.
The EPA is also enacting tougher restrictions on coal-fired plants to reduce pollutants like soot and nitrous oxides, and to force clean-up of water contamination by coal-fired plants. Michael S. Regan, the EPA administrator, said these and other rules will have the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He also indicated that rule changes like these could make some coal plants too expensive to continue operating, resulting in some closing.
“By presenting all these rules at the same time to the industry, he has a chance to look at the whole set at once and say, ‘Is it worth doubling the investments in this current facility? Or should we look at that cost and say it’s in the time to invest in a clean energy future?'” Regan said at an oil and gas conference in March.
“If some of these facilities decide it’s not worth investing in and you get a quick retirement, that’s the best tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
Environmental activists said they were uncertain about the Biden administration’s commitment.
“What we’re seeing is that the Biden administration is not acting with the necessary urgency,” said Weston Gobar, a spokesman for the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of black-led social justice and environmental groups. He called on Biden to declare a “climate emergency” under the National Emergencies Act in order to quickly build clean energy resources, and urge Congress to lift the obstruction to passing climate laws.
He praised the EPA’s emerging strategy, noting that most pollution from power plants disproportionately affects communities of color. But, said Gobar, “that’s not enough.”
Meanwhile, when it comes to directly regulating greenhouse gas emissions released by power plants, several experts said the EPA could require the blending of relatively cleaner fuels, such as gas or hydrogen, to reduce emissions, along with other technological solutions, such as capturing carbon dioxide from power plants before the emissions enter the atmosphere.
Michelle Bloodworth, chief executive of America’s Power, a coal industry group, said an aggressive agenda promoting more coal-fired plant closures would undermine the reliability of the power grid.
“Grid authorities have issued warnings about the prospect of electricity shortages and blackouts in many parts of the country, and more coal-fired power plant retirements would only worsen the situation,” Bloodworth said in a statement. She noted that more than 40% of the country’s coal sector has already announced closure plans.
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
