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EPA issues toughest rule yet on power plant emissions, but it’s likely to face court challenges
Washington — Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.
New limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants are the Biden administration’s most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change. The rules are a key part of President Biden’s pledge to eliminate carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 2035 and economy-wide by 2050.
The rule was among four separate measures targeting coal and natural gas plants that the EPA said would provide “regular certainty” to the power industry and encourage it to make investments to transition “to a clean energy economy.” They also include requirements to reduce toxic wastewater pollutants from coal-fired plants and to safely manage so-called coal ash in unlined storage ponds.
The new rules “reduce pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, protect communities from pollution and improve public health – all while supporting the long-term, reliable supply of the electricity needed to power America forward,″ EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters at a White House briefing.
The plan is likely to be challenged by industry groups and Republican-leaning states. They have repeatedly accused the Democratic administration of overreach on environmental regulations and have warned of a looming reliability crisis for the electric grid. The rules issued Thursday are among at least a half-dozen EPA rules limiting power plant emissions and wastewater pollution.
Environmental groups hailed the EPA’s latest action as urgently needed to protect against the devastating harms of climate change.
The power plant rule marks the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. The rule also would force future electric plants fueled by coal or gas to control up to 90% of their carbon pollution. The new standards will avoid 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047, equivalent to the annual emissions of 328 million gas cars, the EPA said, and will provide hundreds of billions of dollars in climate and health benefits, measured in fewer premature deaths, asthma cases and lost work or school days.
Coal plants that plan to stay open beyond 2039 would have to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032, the EPA said. Plants that expect to retire by 2039 would face a less stringent standard but still would have to capture some emissions. Coal plants that are set to retire by 2032 would not be subject to the new rules.
Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said that through the latest rules, “the EPA is systematically dismantling the reliability of the U.S. electric grid.”
He accused Mr. Biden, Regan and other officials of “ignoring our energy reality and forcing the closure of well-operating coal plants that repeatedly come to the rescue during times of peak demand. The repercussions of this reckless plan will be felt across the country by all Americans.”
Regan denied that the rules were aimed at shutting down the coal sector, but acknowledged in proposing the power plant rule last year that, “We will see some coal retirements.”
The proposal relies on technologies to limit carbon pollution that the industry itself has said are viable and available, Regan said. “Multiple power companies have indicated that (carbon capture and storage) is a viable technology for the power sector today, and they are currently pursuing those CCS projects,” he told reporters Wednesday.
Coal provided about 16% of U.S. electricity last year, down from about 45% in 2010. Natural gas provides about 43% of U.S. electricity, with the remainder from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.
Environmentalists laud EPA moves
The power plant rule “completes a historic grand slam” of major actions by the Biden administration to reduce carbon pollution, said David Doniger, a climate and clean energy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The first and most important action was passage of the 2022 climate law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, he said, followed by separate EPA rules targeting tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks and methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.
Together, the climate law and the suite of EPA rules “are the biggest reductions in carbon pollution we’ve ever made and will put the country on the pathway to zero out carbon emissions,” Doniger said in an interview.
The nation still faces challenges in eliminating carbon from transportation, heavy industry and more, said Abigail Dillen, president of the environmental group Earthjustice, “but we can’t make progress on any of it without cleaning up the power plants.”
Industry blasts them
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, called the EPA rule “unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable,” adding that it faced a certain court challenge. The rule disregards the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that limited the agency’s ability to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act, Matheson said. It also relies on technologies “that are promising, but not ready for prime time,″ he said.
“This barrage of new EPA rules ignores our nation’s ongoing electric reliability challenges and is the wrong approach at a critical time for our nation’s energy future,” said Matheson, whose association represents 900 local electric cooperatives across the country.
The EPA rule wouldn’t mandate use of equipment to capture and store carbon emissions – a technology that’s expensive and still being developed. Instead, the agency would set caps on carbon dioxide pollution that plant operators would have to meet. Some natural gas plants could start blending gas with other fuel sources that don’t emit carbon, although specific actions would be left to industry.
Still, the regulation is expected to lead to greater use of carbon capture equipment. Only a handful of projects are operating in the country despite years of research.
Other new EPA steps
The EPA also tightened rules aimed at reducing wastewater pollution from coal-fired power plants and preventing harm from toxic pits of coal ash, a waste byproduct of burning coal.
Coal ash contains cancer-causing substances like arsenic and mercury that can leach into the ground, drinking water and nearby rivers and streams, harming people and killing fish. The waste is commonly stored in ponds near power plants. The EPA issued rules in 2015 to regulate active and new ponds at operating facilities, seven years after a disaster in Kingston, Tennessee that flooded two rivers with toxic waste and destroyed property.
Environmental groups challenged that rule, arguing it left a large amount of coal ash waste unregulated by the federal government. The rule issued Thursday forces owners to safely close inactive coal ash ponds and clean up contamination.
A separate rule would reduce toxic wastewater pollution by 660 million pounds annually, according to federal officials. It’s a reversal of the Trump administration’s push to loosen coal plant wastewater standards.
“For the first time, we have seen a comprehensive set of standards that protects the surrounding waterways from the extremely nasty water pollution that comes off these coal-fired sites,” said Frank Holleman, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Taipei, Taiwan — Numerous children were injured by a vehicle outside an elementary school in central China’s Hunan province on Tuesday, reports said. Hours after the incident, the casualty count was unclear and authorities had yet to clarify if it was an accident or a deliberate attack. The incident follows a series of recent killings or attacks in China by people in vehicles or wielding knives, including others at schools.
Students were arriving for classes around 8 a.m. at Yong’an Elementary School in the city of Changde when a small white SUV drove into a crowd of children and adults, according to state media. Few details were released, reflecting China’s reflexive inclination to suppress news about crime, protests and major accidents that could erode public confidence in the ruling Communist Party’s self-declared ability to maintain social order.
Several adults were also injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said, adding that the driver was subdued by parents and security guards and some of the injured were immediately sent to the hospital.
Social Media/via REUTERS
Police in the city’s Dingcheng district, where the school is located, issued a statement saying no one had life-threatening injuries and identifying the driver as a 39-year-old man surnamed Huang, who was under detention. It said the incident was under investigation but gave no word on the cause or other details.
Footage posted on Chinese social media showed the injured lying on the road while terrified students ran past the gate and inside the schoolhouse.
Comments on Chinese internet sites reflected anger and frustration with recurring incidents of violence against citizens by those venting anger at society.
Elif Acar/Anadolu/Getty
While China has much lower rates of violence than many countries — personal gun ownership there is illegal — knifings and the use of homemade explosives still occur.
Chinese schools have been subject to numerous attacks by people armed with knives or using vehicles as weapons. A stabbing attack at a vocational school in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi on Saturday left eight people dead and 17 others injured.
That came shortly after a man drove his car into people at a sports facility in the southern city of Zhuhai, leaving 35 people dead and 43 others injured.
In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and 15 others were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”
The same month, a Japanese schoolboy died after being stabbed on his way to school in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The Chinese government generally censors internet content it deems overly sensitive or political, and some images of the school incident were quickly taken down. Most Western social media sites and search engines like Google are blocked in China, limiting available content even while some people use tools like VPNs and send news through Chinese social media before the censors have time to catch it.
Ahead of the release of “Gladiator II,” starring Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, the “60 Minutes: A Second Look” podcast team searched through years of interviews with the acclaimed actor, digging up never before aired footage from throughout Washington’s career.
Washington spoke with Ed Bradley in 1999, for a 60 Minutes piece aired in 2000, about why he didn’t initially like being compared to Sidney Poitier and why he wasn’t being offered romantic films. They spoke again in 2005, when Washington was performing on Broadway. Washington was also interviewed by Bill Whitaker in 2016, when they discussed his approach to directing “Fences,” whether he would ever join a superhero franchise and the role of race in his work.
Denzel Washington in 2000
Bradley first profiled Washington in 2000. Washington had done more than 20 movies by that point, but very few romantic films.
“I’m not offered any,” Washington said at the time, adding that he thought it came down to business.
“I think that if it was a love story with myself and a Black woman, it’s not big business in Hollywood,” Washington said. “So they, maybe they’re not interested.”
While already an Oscar winner in the best supporting actor category at the time of the interview, Washington had not yet taken home the Academy Award for best actor. He was nominated for his role in that year’s “The Hurricane” and was previously up for the award in 1993 for “Malcolm X,” going up against Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Robert Downey Jr. and Stephen Rea. He recalled not expecting to win in ’93.
“Because I knew, I could see, I could read the leaves. I could see what was happening,” Washington said. “You know, there was a lot of, there was a groundswell of, uh, you know, Al Pacino had been, has, had been nominated for the eighth time. Had he not won, he would have been 0 for 8. You know, I voted for Al Pacino. I wanted to see him win.”
By 2000, Oscar or no Oscar, many considered Washington one of the greats, but it was another actor whose name came up time and time again. Sidney Poitier was the first Black performer to win the Academy Award for best actor in 1963. Initially, Washington said he would get upset when he heard the comparison.
“And the reason was, I said, you know, isn’t it a shame that there’s only one person to be compared to? You know, I would almost be insulted by that to say, ‘Oh, you’re like the next Sidney.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, you mean there’s been nobody in between? He’s the only one? Who else was acting while Sidney was acting? Who else is acting now? I’m not one,’ I don’t, I’m not too keen on that,'” Washington said.
However, Washington didn’t feel like he had to carry the torch.
“There are other actors now like Sam Jackson, or Lawrence Fishburne, or Michael Wright, or Will Smith. You know, and other young actors coming along,” Washington said. “I’m not the only one — I’m not even the biggest one of that group!”
Denzel Washington in 2005
Bradley interviewed Washington again in 2005. At the time, Washington was on Broadway, appearing in a modern day production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” He played Brutus, one of the leaders of the plot to kill Caesar.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to get back on the stage, to get back to my roots,” Washington said at the time. “And I get so few opportunities to get on the stage, So when I do, I really like tackling Shakespeare, which is the toughest and the most rewarding.”
Washington was making big money for acting, but he was also venturing into the world of directing with “Antwone Fisher,” which he directed and starred in. Bradley asked if Washington preferred acting or directing.
“I look at Clint Eastwood as the model. That’s, I like the way he’s doing things and that’s how I’d like to do it,” Washington said. “Just, you know, segue right on into, into more and more filmmaking.”
Denzel Washington in 2016
In 2016, Bill Whitaker interviewed Washington while he was in the middle of directing and acting in the film adaptation of August Wilson’s play, “Fences.” Wilson insisted on a Black director for “Fences.” At the time, Washington told Whitaker that for him, it was not so much about race as it was about culture.
“I’m sure Scorsese could have directed ‘Schindler’s List.’ And Spielberg probably could have directed ‘Goodfellas,'” he said.
He went on to explain: “You know, there’s things specific to the Italian American culture that Scorsese understands that you and I may not understand or Spielberg may not understand. And there are things specific to Jewish American or whatever culture that you and I may not understand that Spielberg would understand,” Washington said, adding, “So I know what it smells like when hair is being hot combed on a Sunday morning when my sister’s getting ready to go to church or something. There’s a particular smell that’s specific to our culture, I think.”
By 2016, Washington was fronting big budget movies like “The Equalizer,” “American Gangster” and remakes of “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Magnificent Seven.” Studio executives told Whitaker that Washington was a game changer, an actor who defied categorization and had appeal across the board.
“I guess you can cultivate it to a degree, but fundamentally, I’m just trying to be the best actor I can be. To do the best I can with the ability that I have,” Washington said during the 2016 interview.
They also touched on superhero movies, but Washington felt he “may be a little beyond the tights years.”
Denzel Washington now
Washington will turn 70 in late December, and will have been acting for nearly 50 years. Despite his success and experience, he says “Gladiator II,” also starring Paul Mescal, is the biggest film he has ever worked on. He stars as Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer hungry for power.
“Every scene I did with him was never how I expected it to go,” Mescal told podcast host Seth Doane during a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview. Mescal called it a dream and said it was “very thrilling to be five feet in front of his face watching him do that.”
Next year, Washington will return to Broadway to star in “Othello.”
Austin, Texas — Texas public schools could use teachings from the Bible in lessons as an option for students from kindergarten through fifth grade under a proposal that drew hours of testimony Monday and follows Republican-led efforts in other states to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms.
Teachers and parents gave impassioned testimony for and against the curriculum plan at a meeting of the Texas State Board of Education, which is expected to hold a final vote on the measure later this week.
The Board heard from more than 150 people about the new proposed curriculum during more than 8 hours of testimony, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reported.
Testimony was expected to resume Tuesday, CBS Austin affiliate KEYE-TV said.
The curriculum – designed by the state’s public education agency – would allow teachings from the Bible such as the Golden Rule and lessons from books such as Genesis into classrooms. Under the plan, it would be optional for schools to adopt the curriculum though they would receive additional funding if they did so.
Some complained that the proposal contradicts the public school mission.
“This curriculum fails to meet the standard of an honest, secular one,” educator Megan Tessler said. “Public schools are meant to educate, not indoctrinate.”
Others strongly backed the idea.
“Parents and teachers want a return to excellence,” Cindy Asmussen, one of those testifying, told the panel. “Stories and concepts in the Bible have been common for hundreds of years,” and that, she said, is a core part of classical learning.
Education officials were expected to vote Friday on whether public schools would be given the option to teach the curriculum.
The proposal to incorporate religious teaching in Texas public schools mirrors a similar trend elsewhere in the country. In Oklahoma, state officials are seeking to include the Bible into public school lesson plans. In Louisiana, a federal judge recently quashed a requirement to have the Ten Commandments displayed in all public classrooms.
Educators, parents and advocates weighed in at the State Board of Education’s final meeting of the year, where many opponents argued that the proposal’s emphasis on Christian teachings would alienate students of other faiths. Those in favor testified that it would give students a more holistic educational foundation.
Religious experts and the Texas Freedom Network, a left-leaning watchdog group that monitors the state’s education board, said the curriculum proposal focuses too much on Christianity and dances around the history of slavery.
The program was designed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year after passage of a law giving it a mandate to create its own free textbook. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has publicly supported the new materials.
Republican lawmakers in Texas have also proposed displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms and are likely to revisit the issue next year.