The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new rule to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants, which would effectively ban new coal power plants, as its emissions standards are too low to be met by conventional coal-fired facilities.
The new rule requires power plants to meet an output-based standard of 453kg (1,000lbs) of CO2 per MWh of electricity produced. Other than natural gas-fired power plants built in recent years, most power plants, and especially coal-fired ones, would fail to meet that standard.
While existing power plants and those holding EPA permits for upcoming construction would be excluded, the rule would prevent any new coal-fired power plants from being built unless they were outfitted with carbon-reducing technology, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS is still a very expensive technology, and questions remain about where to store the captured carbon.
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