The move comes in response to pleas from environmental justice groups, which said the rule was not protective enough of disadvantaged communities that have breathed unhealthy air for decades. Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately located near gas plant smokestacks and other sources of industrial pollution.
It also comes as President Biden tries to sell voters on his climate record during a bruising reelection campaign against Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner. Polling shows that many voters have never heard of Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, while many young people were outraged by the administration’s approval of a major oil drilling project in Alaska last year.
In May 2023, the EPA issued a proposed rule that called for drastically curbing greenhouse gas emissions from three categories of power plants: existing coal plants, existing gas plants and new gas plants.
The agency said Thursday that it is still on track to finalize the rules for existing coal plants and new gas plants in April. But it said the rule for existing gas plants would take longer and would cover harmful air pollutants in addition to greenhouse gases.
“As EPA works towards final standards to cut climate pollution from existing coal and new gas-fired power plants later this spring, the Agency is taking a new, comprehensive approach to cover the entire fleet of natural gas-fired turbines, as well as cover more pollutants including climate, toxic and criteria air pollution,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
“This stronger, more durable approach will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal,” Regan added.
Power plants rank as the nation’s second-biggest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. They account for about 25 percent of the greenhouse gases produced by the United States.
According to the EPA, the tougher rules under consideration for existing gas plants would also specifically address pollutants of concern to neighboring communities, such as formaldehyde and lung-damaging nitrogen dioxide.
In a February letter to Biden and Regan, a coalition of leaders in the environmental justice movement had urged the EPA to bolster the standards for existing gas plants.
“EJ communities are host to a wide range of polluting industries, including a majority of the nation’s fossil fuel-derived power sector,” wrote the leaders, including Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University who is known as the “father of environmental justice” for his pioneering work.
“Many of our communities experience the immediate impacts of living near the existing infrastructure of coal plants, gas plants, pipelines, and extraction and refining facilities,” they wrote. “As a result, achieving EJ should be a central focus of any effort to combat pollution from the power sector.”
Major environmental groups had also criticized the EPA’s proposed rule for covering too few existing gas plants. According to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Evergreen Action, the proposed rule would have applied to just 5 percent of existing gas turbines, leaving thousands of plants spewing emissions unchecked.
Charles Harper, the senior power sector policy lead at Evergreen Action, called on the EPA to finalize the stronger rules “as quickly as possible” in a statement Thursday.
“While today’s announcement means that the road to federal carbon limits on existing gas plants will be longer than we had hoped, we are confident the administration will finalize standards this spring for key sources, and we’re in this for the long haul,” Harper said.
In contrast, the Edison Electric Institute, the top lobbying group for U.S. utility companies, had asked the EPA to soften the requirements for existing gas plants. The group had argued in public comments that the rules would undermine the reliability of the nation’s aging electric grid, especially as older coal plants continue to retire.
Emily Sanford Fisher, executive vice president for clean energy at the Edison Electric Institute, said in a statement Thursday that “we appreciate that EPA has acknowledged our concerns with the proposed regulations for existing natural gas.”
Abigail Dillen, president of the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said she…
Read More: EPA to delay and strengthen climate change rule for gas power plants