Biden to delay part of plan for emissions curbs
Some power plants exempted
WASHINGTON — Facing intense opposition from major industries and some Democrats, the Biden administration on Thursday said it would delay the most contentious element of its plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency will exempt existing gas-fired plants, at least for now, from a new regulation that would require power plants in the United States to capture their carbon dioxide emissions before 2040.
The delay comes as the administration, in a concession to automakers and labor unions, is also expected to relax elements of another major rule to limit carbon pollution from automobiles. Those two groups are an important part of President Joe Biden’s Democratic constituency as he seeks reelection in November.
The weakening of the Biden administration’s two most ambitious climate rules would call into question the ability of the United States to meet the president’s goal of cutting U.S. emissions roughly in half by the end of this decade. The target was aimed at limiting global warming to about 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which scientist say it will be increasingly difficult for humans to adapt to a hotter planet.
“Slower progress on these marquee rules means they’re going to have to find new places to get emissions reductions soon,” said John Larsen, a partner at Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan energy research firm.
The power plant rule initially called for steep emissions cuts from plants that burn coal or gas, which together produce the bulk of electricity in the U.S. To comply, plants would have to capture their greenhouse gas emissions using technologies that are currently very expensive and not widely in use.
Now the EPA says the regulation, which is expected to be finalized this spring, will apply only to existing coal-burning plants and gas-fired plants that are built in the future.
The agency plans to write a separate regulation to address climate pollution and other emissions from gas-fired plants currently in operation, a delay certain to stretch past the November election.
“This stronger, more durable approach will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal,” Michael Regan, the EPA administrator, said in a statement.
The changes come as Biden faces intense headwinds as he runs for reelection while trying to confront climate change. He is aiming to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-powered vehicles, which are two of the largest sources of greenhouse gases, while retaining crucial electoral support in major manufacturing states.
Power plants generate about a quarter of the planet-warming pollution produced by the United States. Regulating electric utilities is a major part of Biden’s climate agenda, which includes a goal of eliminating emissions from the power sector by 2035.
Several environmental activists and Democratic lawmakers criticized the move. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called the EPA decision “inexplicable.”
“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.
“Time is not on our side,” he said, adding that a warming planet won’t wait for what he called the agency’s “lethargic rule-making pace.”
The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, would not say whether it supported a more limited rule. But Emily Sanford Fisher, the group’s executive vice president of clean energy, said in a statement that the EPA had “acknowledged our concerns” about gas plants.
“We understand that the role of natural gas continues to evolve, and it is important that regulations for existing natural gas protect customer reliability and affordability and support our industry’s ongoing clean energy transition,” she said.
Imposing rules on how U.S. homes and businesses are powered has never been easy.
President Barack Obama tried to cut carbon pollution from power plants by engineering a transition to renewable power, but his 2015 Clean Power Plan was put on hold by the Supreme Court and later rolled back by President Donald Trump.
In 2022 the Supreme Court restrained the way the EPA could regulate emissions from power plants, ruling the government could not force a wholesale transition away from coal-fired electricity.
When the Biden administration first proposed new limits on pollution from power plants, the EPA hewed closely to the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court. Still, the resistance was immediate.
Electric utility groups argued that the rules for existing gas plants would be particularly hard to meet; the country’s biggest manufacturing lobby warned it could have “devastating consequences.” And a small but significant number of swing-state Democrats said they also feared the requirements would result in electric rate increases.
“Depending on implementation, municipal electric utilities serving small, rural communities in my district may have no choice but to pass along the costs of compliance to their ratepayers,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
Kaptur was among a group of House and Senate Democrats who wrote to the EPA in January to express concern about the proposed regulation. “We share the administration’s goal of responsibly reducing carbon emissions,” they wrote. But, they added, “we cannot ask our constituents to bear the cost of that risk in the form of significantly higher utility bills and unreliable electricity.”
Sen. Jon Tester, one of the most vulnerable Democrats facing reelection in November, who also opposed the power plant rule, said he wanted a methodical transition to cleaner energy. “I’m all about climate change, and we have to figure out ways to that,” Tester said Wednesday. “In the meantime, we can’t shut off the spigot.”
The Democratic critics represent a small slice of the party. But some fear that the segment will grow as more than a half-dozen regulations cracking down on matters including carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles and power plants, handling of coal ash, chemicals, endangered species and environmental permits are finalized this spring.
“I do worry about this,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who frequently promotes fossil fuels, said in a recent interview.
“In my area, you’ve got generations of people who have worked for energy companies and you’ve got families that depend on and work in this industry,” Cuellar said. He said he supported cutting greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change but added, “I think there should be incentives instead of mandating.”
Under the new plan disclosed Thursday, the EPA said it intended to finalize its regulation to require existing coal plants to install technology that will capture 90% of their carbon emissions by 2035. Alternatively, coal plants could convert their operations so that they are burning mostly hydrogen by 2038. Plants that cannot meet the new standards would be forced to retire.
The EPA did not say when it intended to issue a separate rule for gas plants. Regan said the agency was writing a regulation that will also address other harmful pollutants emitted from gas plants such as formaldehyde and nitrous oxide.