Tag: power plants

New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website August 18, 2018:

Steam rises from cooling towers at the American Electric Power Co. coal-fired power plant in Winfield, W.Va., on July 18, 2018. Credit: Luke Sharrett, Bloomberg News

President Trump plans this week to unveil a proposal that would empower states to establish emission standards for coal-fired power plants rather than speeding their retirement — a major overhaul of the Obama administration’s signature climate policy. The plan, which is projected to release at least 12 times the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared with the Obama rule over the next decade, comes as scientists have warned that the world will experience increasingly dire climate effects absent a major cut in carbon emissions.

Trump plans to announce the measure as soon as Tuesday during a visit to West Virginia, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House was still finalizing details Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s own impact analysis, which runs nearly 300 pages, projects that the proposal would make only slight cuts to overall emissions of pollutants — including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides — over the next decade. The Obama rule, by contrast, dwarfs those cuts by a factor of more than 12.

View the complete article here.

Here’s why Trump’s new strategy to keep ailing coal and nuclear plants open makes no sense

The following article by James Van Nostrand, Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development; Professor of Law, West Virginia University, was posted on the Conversation.com website June 6, 2018:

Credit Spencer Platt, Getty Images

President Donald Trump recently ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to stop the closure of coal and nuclear power plants.

And according to a draft memo that surfaced the same day, the federal government may establish a “Strategic Electric Generation Reserve” to purchase electricity from coal and nuclear plants for two years.

Both proposals, which have garnered little support, are premised on these power plants being essential to national security. If implemented, the government would be activating emergency powers rarely tapped before for any purpose.

Based on my four decades of experience as a utility regulatory attorney and law professor, I can see why this proposal has caused much controversy, partly because of how energy markets work. Continue reading “Here’s why Trump’s new strategy to keep ailing coal and nuclear plants open makes no sense”

EPA Begins Rollback of Obama Clean Power Plan

The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website September 9, 2017:

The EPA took significant steps this week to repeal the Obama Clean Power Plan that seeks to cut carbon emissions from the energy sector by 32% by 2030. EPA Chief Scott Pruitt actively opposed the Clean Power Plan as Attorney General of Oklahoma and now, as the head of the EPA, he faces few obstacles as he dismantles one of President Obama’s signature environmental policies.

President Trump signed an executive order in March requiring the EPA to review the Clean Power Plan with the clear intent of repealing it. Since then the EPA has been reviewing the rule and, according to reporting from The Hill, intends to reverse it later this year. The EPA has quietly filed the repeal policy with the Office of Management and Budget for regulatory review.

While a window for public discussion will open after the new rule is entered into the Federal Register, the “EPA expects that the administrator will sign the proposed rule in the fall of 2017.”

View the post here.