On Friday, Sept. 20, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency proposed rules to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
from new fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). The
proposed rule does not apply to modified or reconstructed fossil
fuel-fired EGUs, only new sources.
The proposed rule effectively requires any new coal-fired EGUs
to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reduce a portion of
their GHG emissions. For natural gas-fired EGUs, the proposed GHG
emission limit essentially meets the emission rate currently
achieved by new combined cycle combustion turbines. EPA is
accepting comments on whether simple cycle combustion turbines
should be subject to the new rule, although as a practical matter
the agency anticipates that few simple cycle combustion turbines
would be subject to the rule because the rule only affects EGUs
that sell more than one-third of their potential electric output to
the grid. Many simple cycle combustion turbines would
