Obama Climate Agenda Suggests Fossil Fuel Power Plants Face Expensive Choices
Posted in: Today's ChiliSpeaking at Georgetown University on Tuesday afternoon, President Barak Obama outlined a highly anticipated and somewhat variegated collection of new and expanded initiatives aimed at curbing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and addressing global warming — from tougher fuel-economy rules for vehicles and expanded use of renewable energy, to improved efficiency requirements for both buildings and household appliances.
But perhaps the most historic — and almost certainly the most contentious of the president’s proposals — involved new greenhouse gas emissions limits for the nation’s existing fleet of power plants. In the absence of congressional action on climate change, and using his existing authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act, Obama said he would call on the Environmental Protection Agency to develop new rules that would curb carbon dioxide emissions from the hundreds of operating coal and gas-fired electricity generators around the country.
The call for emissions limits on existing power plants comes on the heels of tougher standards being developed by the EPA for the construction of new plants, first proposed during Obama’s first term. The administration aims to have the rules for new plants in place later this year. Emissions limits for the existing fleet may be proposed by June 2014, with a goal of finalizing them by 2015.
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