LITTLE IMPACT SEEN FROM COAL CHANGE

The Trump administration wants to remove a key barrier to constructing new coal-fired power plants in the U.S. -- but don’t expect any utilities to actually build them.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed easing Obama-era limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new and modified coal power plants, including a change that would remove a de facto requirement to use expensive carbon-capture technology at the sites.

The carbon-capture requirement EPA is seeking to remove is one obstacle to building coal power plants, though economic and market realities have created much higher hurdles that analysts say will endure no matter what the Trump administration does.

“We don’t see the EPA’s rollback of carbon capture technology and storage requirements sparking any new coal plant openings in the foreseeable future,” said Toby Shea, vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.