The Biden administration is poised to impose new carbon capture rules for natural gas power plants even as states and industry groups complain that the EPA is lagging far behind on permits allowing for the construction of the new technology.
The new rules, which could be announced as soon as this week, would require new natural gas power plants to implement technology that captures carbon emissions, industry insiders who have knowledge of the plan said.
The Biden administration is working to slash emissions from natural gas power plants to help implement its goal of cutting all carbon emissions in half by 2030.
The new rules will also likely require existing natural gas power plants to reduce emissions and eventually install carbon capture technology.
The rules are set to be imposed as dozens of carbon capture and sequestration projects await approval by the EPA, stalling construction and stifling investment.
The backlog has delayed projects and frustrated states and industry officials seeking to build the new systems.
Business groups representing industry officials in five states wrote to EPA Administrator Michael Regan last month to complain about “significant delays” in permits for Class VI injection wells, which are a critical part of the carbon capture and storage infrastructure.
“Without immediate improvement, the current Class VI permitting timeline will continue to serve as a barrier to meeting emission reduction goals — including the ones the Biden administration has set — while discouraging much-needed infrastructure investments across the country,” the group wrote.
The EPA is currently reviewing 30 applications for Class VI injection wells from seven states dating back to 2020.
Some states are awaiting approval from the federal government to award them the authority to grant the permits at the state level. The Trump administration gave that authority to North Dakota and Wyoming.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, wrote to Mr. Regan in January asking about the status of the state’s application to issue permits, which the EPA has been reviewing for two years. Mr. Edwards also asked for more clarity in the application process.
EPA officials were not immediately able to provide a comment on the complaints about the delays, nor would they confirm the new carbon capture rules in a statement provided to The Washington Times.
“EPA cannot comment because the proposals are under interagency review and subject to change,” an EPA spokeswoman told The Times. “But we have been clear from the start that we will use all of our legally-upheld tools, grounded in decades-old bipartisan laws, to address dangerous air pollution and protect the air our children breathe today and for generations to come.”
Environmental groups who seek to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels have been pressuring the Biden administration to require natural gas power plants to cut carbon emissions, in part because the cost and difficulty of implementing carbon-cutting technology will make renewables like wind and solar a more attractive energy source for power plants.
“The environmental community is one of the biggest organizational and financial arms of the Democratic Party political machine. They have been clamoring for more, more, more and more,” said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, which analyzes government regulation of global energy markets and advocates for market-driven solutions.
The new rules the Biden administration is about to impose on natural gas plants, Mr. Pyle said, are meant to eliminate natural gas plants entirely.
“The rule is very cleverly written in that it asks the industry to comply with technology that they themselves are slowing down,” Mr. Pyle said.
Nearly 40% of all U.S. electricity is generated from natural gas.
The administration may be sending mixed signals when it comes to supporting carbon capture and sequestration.
The EPA released a report Monday calculating that a massive scale-up of carbon capture technology at U.S. power plants would become a $600 billion industry by 2050.
Yet Mr. Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, told The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday that relying on carbon capture technology to lower emissions would not go far enough to stop the world from passing temperature “tipping points” on climate change. Mr. Kerry said the solution is to instead speed up the deployment of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.
The administration has taken steps to facilitate carbon sequestration and capture technology in fossil fuel plants.
The green energy and tax bill Mr. Biden signed into law in 2022 provided $369 billion in incentives for clean energy spending, including funding to encourage carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects.
The new law expanded the availability of tax credits for carbon capture and storage and increased the credit amounts.
The president’s bipartisan infrastructure bill provided money to the EPA to help administer the permitting process.
Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, said her organization is seeking updates on carbon capture permits and applications by states seeking to issue their own permits, as well as information about how the EPA is spending millions of dollars included in a bipartisan infrastructure bill specifically for the agency to administer the carbon capture and sequestration permitting programs.
“While we wait for that reply, we can say that we do know that standing up and staffing a regulatory program of this nature and complexity takes time,” Ms. Stolark said. “The bipartisan infrastructure law has been in place for just over one year now, and we look forward to continuing to work with EPA to ensure that they are fully resourced to adequately and swiftly work with the growing number of project developers who are looking to apply for, and secure, Class VI permits in time frames that enable successful project development.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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