Carbon Capture Coalition Statement on Proposed EPA Rules on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants 

The following statement on EPA’s release of proposed rules for greenhouse gas standards and guidelines for fossil fuel-fired power plants may be attributed to Carbon Capture Coalition Executive Director Jessie Stolark:

“Today’s proposed rules elevate the role of carbon capture by naming it as one of the available technologies for reaching emissions standards for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants. In addition to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the deployment of carbon capture technologies at power plants may result in further reduction of conventional air pollutant emissions which are regulated by the EPA and recognized as harmful to human health. Our members agree that deploying carbon capture technologies in the power sector is absolutely critical to reduce emissions, provide affordable, reliable baseload power in a deeply decarbonized energy grid, as well as meet climate objectives.

“Today, the power sector is responsible for approximately one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, natural gas power will be in the domestic energy mix for decades. Even with aggressive, high penetration renewable scenarios, which show significant deployment of renewable resources in the next decade, we’ll need firm, dispatchable power, which may be provided by carbon capture at fossil fuel-fired power plants.

“Throughout its decade-plus history, the Carbon Capture Coalition has been intently focused on enacting market-based incentives to deploy carbon management technologies, i.e., the 45Q tax credit as well as increasing federal research, development, and deployment funds. In fact, Coalition members played a central role in advocating for the significant restructuring of 45Q in 2018, the recent enhancements to the tax credit, as well as the historic funding for carbon management programs contained in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

“Thanks to the enactment of these broadly supported provisions, for the first time, project developers have a portfolio of complementary federal policies to catalyze the deployment of these technologies in the industry, power, and direct air capture sectors.

“This is the crucial demonstration and deployment decade for these technologies to fulfill their emissions reduction and economic benefits. By 2030, we need to be on track to sufficiently deploy carbon management technologies economywide, to keep midcentury global temperature targets within reach. While recent enhancements made to the 45Q tax credit, along with significant federal investments in research, development, and demonstration programs have notably moved the needle in the right direction— critical gaps in federal carbon management policy remain.

“Now, the 118th Congress must seize the opportunity to reinforce and grow the role of American leadership in the development and deployment of these technologies throughout the remainder of this decade, and beyond. To that end, the Coalition has outlined a roadmap of additional policy and regulatory levers necessary to scale this technology in our consensus-based 2023 Federal Policy Blueprint, to continue building upon the momentum provided by Congress over the course of the last several years.”

###

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.