EPA’s plans for power plant carbon emissions: 30% cut by 2030

NERSC

Today, the Obama administration released its long-awaited plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the US electric industry. The new rules, required under the Clean Air Act, will see the Environmental Protection Agency direct states to produce cuts in emissions that will bring them to 30 percent below their 2005 levels. The new plan follows restrictions put in place on new power plants that were released last year.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA will set state-level limits on total emissions. The states would then have substantial flexibility in formulating a plan for reaching those limits, although the final plan would be subject to the approval of the EPA. This plan would allow a mixture of new low-carbon electricity production, greater energy efficiency, and the use of local and regional emissions trading schemes. But the state plans aren't due until June of 2016, and the whole process is expected to face numerous court challenges.

The EPA's ability to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air act dates back to the Bush Administration, when the Supreme Court decided that greenhouse gas constituted a pollutant under the language of the act. The issue was then left for the Obama administration, with the EPA issuing an endangerment finding in 2009, setting the stage for regulation. The EPA then negotiated a voluntary agreement with automakers, one that is already improving the average fuel economy of the US fleet, a substantial source of carbon emissions.