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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.
Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value and cost of college, with most saying they feel the U.S. higher education system is headed in the “wrong direction,” according to a new poll.
Overall, only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, according to the report released Monday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That confidence level has declined steadily from 57% in 2015.
Some of the same opinions have been reflected in declining enrollment as colleges contend with the effects of the student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition and political debates over how they teach about race and other topics.
Whether a college educations is required to achieve professional success is also up for debate, as only about 1 in 4 Americans say a bachelor’s degree is necessary to secure a well-paying job, according to a March survey from the Pew Research Center.
Employment opportunities and earnings for young men without college degrees have improved in the last decade, reversing some of the economic damage that eroded the group’s fortunes starting in the 1970s. Young men with only a high school degree have seen a slight rebound in their earnings since 2014, Pew found.
The median annual income for men 25- to 34-years-old without a college degree was $45,000 in 2023, a 15% increase from $39,300 in 2014 when adjusted for inflation, according to Pew’s analysis of Census data.
Dimming belief in college
But the dimming view of whether college is worth the time and money extends across all demographics, including gender, age and political affiliation. Among Republicans, the number of respondents with high confidence in higher education has dropped 36 percentage points over the last decade — far more than it dropped for Democrats or independents.
“It’s so expensive, and I don’t think colleges are teaching people what they need to get a job,” said Randy Hill, 59, a registered Republican in Connecticut and a driver for a car service. His nephew plans to do a welding apprenticeship after graduating high school. “You graduate out of college, you’re up to eyeballs in debt, you can’t get a job, then you can’t pay it off. What’s the point?”
The Gallup-Lumina survey’s overall finding — that 36% of adults have strong confidence in higher education — is unchanged from the year before. But what concerns researchers is shifting opinion on the bottom end, with fewer Americans saying they have “some” confidence and more reporting “very little” and “none.” This year’s findings show almost as many people have little or no confidence, 32%, as those with high confidence.
Tuition too high
“The No. 1 deterrent for a student not to pursue a college degree is affordability — they simply think they can’t afford the cost of a higher education,” Michael Itzkowitz, founder of HEA Group, a research and consulting firm focused on college, told CBS MoneyWatch in May.
The schools with the best return on investment for low- and middle-income students include many of California’s state colleges, which tend to be lower-priced than nonprofit private universities, he noted.
Experts say that fewer college graduates could worsen labor shortages in fields from health care to information technology. For those who forgo college, it often means lower lifetime earnings — 75% less compared with those who get bachelor’s degrees, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. And during an economic downturn, those without degrees are more likely to lose jobs.
“It is sad to see that confidence hasn’t grown at all,” said Courtney Brown, vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the numbers of students who seek education beyond high school. “What’s shocking to me is that the people who have low or no confidence is actually increasing.”
This year’s survey added new, detailed questions in an effort to understand why confidence is shrinking.
Almost one-third of respondents say college is “too expensive,” while 24% feel students are not being properly educated or taught what they need to succeed.
The survey did not specifically touch on the protests this year against the war in Gaza that divided many college campuses, but political views weighed heavily on the findings. Respondents voiced concerns about indoctrination, political bias and that colleges today are too liberal. Among the respondents who lack confidence, 41% cite political agendas as a reason.
Generally when people express confidence in higher education, they are thinking of four-year institutions, according to Gallup. But the survey found that more people have confidence in two-year institutions. Forty-nine percent of adults say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in two-year programs, compared with 33% of Americans who feel that way about four-year colleges.
California college student Kristen Freeman understands why.
“It’s about saving money. That’s why I went to a two-year. It’s more bang for your buck,” said Freeman, 22, a sociology major at Diablo Valley Community College with plans to transfer to San Jose State University for the final two years of college.
Freeman understands the concerns about indoctrination and whether college prepares students for life and work but also feels the only way to change structural problems is from the inside. “I am learning about the world around me and developing useful skills in critical thinking,” Freeman said. “I think higher education can give students the spark to want to change the system.”
The Republican National Committee’s 2024 platform, approved by its platform committee and released Monday, is influenced heavily by presumptive presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, and in a change from prior years, it backs the rights of states to make their own abortion laws.
The 2016 RNC platform mentioned the word “abortion” 35 times and backed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion: “[W]e assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” the RNC’s 2016 platform said. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”
The Republican Party did not release a platform in 2020. And the 2024 platform only mentions the word once.
“We proudly stand for families and life,” the 2024 platform says. “We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process,” but it goes on to say, “the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights.”
The platform has been initially approved by the RNC committee, but is expected to go to a full vote Tuesday and be officially approved the first day of the Republican National Convention next week.
It also goes on to express opposition to late-term abortion and support for “policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”
Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom coalition, previously expressed concerns about removing abortion language, but he appeared to fall in line and back the GOP platform as released.
“The Republican Party platform makes clear the unborn child has a right to life that is protected by the Constitution under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment,” Reed said in a statement. “That language has been in the GOP platform for 40 years and reflects the view of Ronald Reagan. While aspirational, it applies to both the states and the federal government. The proposed ban on late-term abortion also implies federal as well as state action. It is an unapologetically pro-life position, and we are grateful to President Trump and the Republican Party for standing for life.”
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-chair Lara Trump focused on the economy and the border in their statement on the platform.
“Only President Trump can restore our economy, restore our southern border, and restore America’s standing in the world,” the two RNC leaders said in a joint statement. “His 2024 Republican Party Platform is a bold roadmap that will undo the devastating damage that Joe Biden’s far-left policies have done to this country, power President Trump to a historic victory in November, and Make America Great Again.”
The platform is titled, “2024 GOP Platform: Make America Great Again!” It bears clear signs of the former president’s influence, emphasizing enforcing border security and stopping the “migrant crime epidemic.” The platform includes a goal to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
The platform also proposes building a “great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country.”
Trump and his campaign have also adopted a new proposal in recent months — eliminating taxes on tips. Trump mentions it frequently at rallies, and it appears in the RNC 2024 platform, along with a promise to end inflation, which has been easing.
The GOP also states in the platform that there will be no cuts to Social Security or Medicare and no changes to the retirement age. It also says that the push for electric vehicles should be canceled and regulations should be cut. And it calls for “same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship” as means to “secure our elections.”
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