Carbon Capture Coalition Submits Comments on EPA’s Proposed Rule to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants 

Today, the Carbon Capture Coalition submitted comments on EPA’s proposed rule for “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units and Emissions Guidelines for Greenhouse gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired EGUs.”  

The following statement may be attributed to Madelyn Morrison, Government Affairs Manager:  

“The Coalition appreciates the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizing carbon capture technologies as a key climate mitigation tool to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) and co-pollutants from coal and natural gas electric generating units. The Carbon Capture Coalition does not have a consensus position on the rule itself as this rule is complex and contains many complicated factors to consider, and our broad, diverse, bipartisan membership does not agree on all of them. That said, we do agree that the full suite of carbon management technologies is necessary to cost-effectively meet both U.S. and global greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets while reducing the total amount of air pollutants released from power facilities. Our comments reflect important considerations and complicating factors across the broader scope of economywide deployment of carbon management technologies for EPA to review. 

“While there is no silver bullet to address the impacts of our changing climate, carbon management technologies, which include carbon capture, removal, transport, reuse and storage, are an essential tool for decarbonizing our highest emitting sectors and helping the U.S. achieve net-zero emissions by midcentury. In the U.S. power sector, deployment of carbon management will play an important role in addressing emissions from existing power plants, where fossil fuel generation currently provides more than 50 percent of total power. Looking forward, the deployment of carbon capture technologies in the power sector will provide flexible, low-emissions energy resources in regions with growing shares of renewable energy sources.   

“Carbon management is not science fiction. Carbon capture, transport and storage technologies have been proven at commercial scale in the United States for decades, with 12 commercial scale facilities capturing and safely storing carbon dioxide in the United States. In the power sector, recent progress in developing and deploying these technologies is promising, with now more than 35 publicly announced carbon capture projects at power plants alone; nearly two-thirds of these projects are at natural gas-fired power facilities.  

“Thanks to unprecedented bipartisan federal investments in carbon management policy enacted over the course of the last few years, carbon management technologies now have the supportive federal policy framework needed to catalyze deployment across the economy. The increased ambition and investment provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law coupled with widely supported enhancements to the 45Q program last Congress are estimated to increase carbon management capacity in the U.S. by 13-fold, and result in annual CO₂ emissions reductions of 210-250 million metric tons by 2035. 

“In addition to considering the technological and economic feasibility of deploying carbon capture technologies at new and existing power plants, the Coalition urges EPA to consider the necessary supportive infrastructure, permitting and regulatory regime that are required to enable the growth of this industry. Scaling this industry in the compliance timeframes outlined in this proposed rule would benefit from a cohesive national plan to ensure a coordinated buildout of transport and storage infrastructure. 

“These associated infrastructure challenges are not unique to the power sector. Ensuring complex aspects of project development come together is necessary to scale carbon management technologies economywide, and EPA should clearly specify what happens when such factors delay project deployment. 

“Collectively, the Coalition is working to enact a comprehensive portfolio of supportive federal polices, including measures to address infrastructure and permitting needs, to ensure that carbon management technologies can scale responsibly and swiftly over the next decade to reach commercial deployment levels that put us on track to meet midcentury climate goals. The members of the Coalition stand ready to assist the EPA as it considers the appropriate role of carbon management technologies in the power sector.” 

Read the Coalition’s comments to EPA here.  

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Convened by the Great Plains Institute, the Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air.