The CPP Meets SCOTUS

The Supreme Court recently issued a stay of the Clean Power Plan, the Obama Administration’s signature regulation addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing power plants.

The Clean Power Plan (CPP) imposed the first-ever national standards to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing power plants. The CPP relies on Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 111(d) and established interim and final CO2 emission performance rates for fossil fuel-fired (mainly coal or oil) electric generating units. States are required to develop and implement plans to ensure that power plants achieve the interim CO₂ emissions performance rates over the period of 2022 to 2029 and the final CO₂ emission performance rates by 2030. The initial state plan was due on September 6, 2016 with final, complete state plans submitted no later than September 6, 2018. Continue reading “The CPP Meets SCOTUS” →

The Goal? No Coal!

The EPA has issued its long-awaiting proposed rule to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). Although there has been a much-heralded ‘pause’ in global warming over the last 16 years, EPA is moving ahead to fulfill President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, in which he calls for a reduction in CO2 emissions from power plants, and to otherwise achieve his stated goal of bankrupting coal plants.

CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas (GHG), accounting for 82% of US GHG emissions and 75% of global GHG emissions. Electricity generation accounts for 32% of GHG emissions and fossil fuel-fired EGUs are by far the largest emitters of GHG. Continue reading “The Goal? No Coal!” →

An Inconvenient Irony

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, remains the target of many environmental groups and some governments who seek to prohibit or significantly curtail the practice. Fracking, however, has provided an abundance of cheap natural gas, which has played a major role in the dramatic decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted in the United States. The decrease in CO2 and the role fracking has played in it has created an interesting, and perhaps inconvenient, irony.

The combustion of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas) in the energy, transportation, and industrial sectors creates the vast majority of greenhouse gases (GHG). Coal combustion creates much more CO2 than the combustion of natural gas. CO2 is the most abundant of GHG and remains in the atmosphere much longer than other GHG, such as methane. Although methane and other GHG have a higher global warming potential, the large amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere has been a major focus of the climate change (formerly known as ‘global warming’) debate. Recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and the Kyoto Protocol are examples of national and international efforts spurred by environmental groups seeking massive decreases in CO2 emissions. Continue reading “An Inconvenient Irony” →