Small oil and coal-fired industrial boilers - Industry - Oil and Gas Industry Press

The Wall Street Journal's Unreliable Take On EPA's Air Pollution Limits

22.05.12

Editorial assessed the effects of four proposed or finalized EPA rules: two Clean Air Act rules, including the Utility MACT rule; a coal ash rule; and the Clean Water Act 316(b) rule, which will reduce the environmental damage done by the cooling water intake structures that power plants use to cool machinery. According to NERC, " [O]f these four rules, the 316(b) rule will have the greatest impact on the amount of capacity that may be economically vulnerable to retirement (approximately 25 to 39 GW)." NERC noted that the proposed Clean Water Act rule "incorporates an extended compliance period," and "unlike the air rules, there will not be a single date on which all plants must be in compliance ... the ultimate compliance date will vary by plant and will be determined by the state permitting director." In addition, NERC acknowledged that the reliability impact of the rule depends largely "on the degree to which state regulators mandate" the most expensive control technology. EPA does not require that technology, but the NERC's high-end estimate assumed every plant would have to adopt it anyway. [NERC, November 2011 ]

Source: Media Matters for America