New EPA Rule May Make Things Worse

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced standards to cut greenhouse gasses from power plants. The rule requires coal power plants with a retirement date far in the future and new gas power plants that operate for prolonged periods to install carbon capture technology. Coal power plants with impending retirement dates are required to blend fracked gas with coal to reduce emissions, and gas power plants that operate intermittently to address spikes in demand are merely required to make incremental efficiency improvements.

In principle, this is welcome news. The electric power sector is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the United States after transportation, accounting for 25 percent of U.S. emissions. Power-sector emissions aren’t falling fast enough to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which the global scientific community has identified as the maximum allowable temperature increase to limit the worst-case climate catastrophes.

Unfortunately, the new rule issued by EPA still won’t get us there. It will fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions adequately — and will perpetuate the legacy of treating communities as sacrifice zones based on race and class by continuing the use of polluting fossil fuels.

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