EPA’s CO2 NSPS For New Power Plants

A Controversial Rule about Nothing

October 9, 2013 On Sept. 20, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first major action implementing the president's Climate Action Plan, in the form of a proposed New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) rule to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from new fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs) under the Clean Air Act. The proposal has been applauded by some as an important first step by the administration to address climate change, and derided by others as an uneconomic and unlawful attack on the coal industry. EPA, however, specifically concluded that compliance with the rule will cost nothing, and accomplish nothing, because the rule is not predicted to result in any actually CO2 reductions.