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Power plants target of new EPA rule
A proposed rule slashing carbon pollution from power plants by 30 percent, announced Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency, drew criticism and praise in Montana, where coal is plentiful and climate change is showing up in the form of longer fire seasons and less water.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said climate change, fueled by carbon pollution from power plants, is putting the nation's health, economy and way of life at risk.
Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas pollutant, accounting for nearly three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions and 84 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
States will be given a 10- to 15-year window to meet the goal, after the plan becomes final. The public has four months to comment.
"The impact of these regulations will likely force the closure of some coal-fired generators in the United States if they are allowed to go all the way through," said Chuck Denowh, a spokesman for Helena-based Count on Coal Montana, which advocates for increased coal production and exports.
He called the EPA announcement "sobering" and the group vowed to fight the rule. Although other pollutants, such as arsenic and mercury, are limited at power plants, no national limits exist for carbon.
"Most of our Montana production goes to coal-fired generators domestically, so as the demand shrinks it likely will affect the production in Montana," Denowh said.
The state produces about 43 million tons of coal annually and has the largest coal reserves in the nation. The Colstrip coal-fired power plant produces 2,094 megawatts of electricity, making it the second largest west of the Mississippi River, according to PPL Montana, one of its owners.
If the rule passes, Denowh predicted loss of coal-related jobs and higher electricity prices.
In 2012, the most recent year for which data was available, the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted from all power sources in Montana was 16.7 metric tons, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"This really is going to force the discussion that we've needed for a long time," said University of Montana climate scientist Steve Running, the lead author of the forest chapter of the National Climate Assessment issued last month.
Controlling emissions from electric power plants is the first step in any serious mitigation of climate change because they are the largest source of carbon pollution, he said.
"If the American people are serious about slowing down climate change, this is the logical first step to do, and if we're not serious about climate change we need to sit our children and grandchildren down and say, 'Sorry, we don't feel like doing anything,'" Running said.
The rule calls for a reduction of carbon emissions from the power sector nationally by 30 percent nationwide, below 2005 levels. Montana must reduce its carbon pollution by 21 percent, based on its emissions levels in 2012.
Clear examples of warming temperatures in Montana already are evident, including the melting of snow pack two weeks earlier, on average, compared to 50 years ago, which has resulted in longer fire seasons that are burning more acreage, Running said.
More forests are being lost to beetle kill, he added, and streams are running dry in late summer, affecting water management.
"What people need to understand is those trends will accelerate in the future as carbon dioxide keeps going up and up," Running said.
Dave Klemp, chief of the DEQ's Air Resources Management Bureau, said Montana has 11 sources that will most likely be affected in some way by the rule, including coal- and natural gas-fired power plants and complex petroleum refining units called cokers, which further refine petroleum byproducts into usable gases and oils.
The EPA, citing rising temperatures and sea level, changes in weather and ecosystems, more heat waves and drought, on Monday released the Clean Power Plan proposal, which for the first time cuts carbon pollution from existing power plans.
In 2012, power plants accounted for 32 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that cause warming temperatures, the EPA said.
"They grind it up and simply burn it so it's a relatively low-efficiency burning, unlike natural gas," UM's Running said. "So it produces a lot of carbon dioxide for the energy you get out."
Greenhouse gasses trap part of the sun's energy that comes to the Earth, Running said. "There's no mystery at all how carbon dioxide warms the Earth," he said.
States must make meaningful progress toward reductions by 2020.
"We can solve problems if we set our mind to it, we just have to have the right tools in the tool box," said Tracy Stone-Manning, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.
With the draft rule being 645 pages, Stone-Manning acknowledged Monday she had not read it in its entirety, but added that DEQ officials would be reviewing it in the coming months to gauge what it means for the state. The question, she said, is "Do we have the right set of tools?"
The Clean Power Plan will be implemented through a state-federal partnership under which states will be tasked with using either electricity production or pollution-control polices or both to meet the goals. For example, states could expand renewable energy generation capacity, or they could require lower-emitting power sources.
DEQ emphasized flexibility in discussions with EPA in order to develop a Montana-based solution, Stone-Manning said.
"It looks like this rule is going to give us that flexibility," she said.
Each state would have to submit initial or complete plans by June 30, 2016. States also could join together and submit multistate plans. Those plans would be eligible for a two-year extension to June 30, 2018.
"Obviously it's going to create some challenges at Colstrip, but we're still analyzing the rule itself and doing the metrics on it on what this schedule of reductions will actually mean," said David Hoffman, a spokesman for PPL Montana, one of the owners of the Colstrip power plant.
It's possible PPL won't be able to comply with the requirements given the state of today's pollution-control technology, he said.
PPL recently decided to mothball another coal-fired power plant in Billings after the EPA came out with new regulations for haze.
PPL had hoped the EPA would establish what Hoffman described as achievable targets based on proven and available technology that "would preserve diversity of fuel."
"The wind doesn't always blow, the water isn't always there," Hoffman said. "It's nice to have a diverse mixture of fuel so it helps ensure there is electricity available around the clock and around the year."
Jeff Fox, the Montana policy manager for Renewable Northwest, which promotes renewable energy in the region, said the state's wind resources could help the state and region meet the new carbon reduction requirements.
By smartly marketing Montana's wind power as a replacement for carbon-intensive coal power, he said, the state can seize a new opportunity to replace the economic activity that was likely going to be lost even before the EPA's carbon rules.
"We're already a proven technology, and for every megawatt hour for wind energy produced something else is not produced, and that something else is fossil fuels and in many cases it's coal power," Fox said.
Besides carbon pollution, the new rules also would reduce other pollution that causes smog, which the EPA's McCarthy said would reduce 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks the first year they are effective.
The EPA is proposing the rule under the Clean Air Act, which Gary Wiens, general manager of the Montana Electric Cooperatives Association, called "a bit of a stretch," arguing that law was never meant to regulate carbon.
The organization is concerned the regulations will drive up the cost of electricity and make it less reliable and also hinder economic development. It has the potential to have a "monumental impact" on the state's cooperatives, he said, because those coops serve very sparsely populated areas where distribution costs already are higher.
"It's absolutely essential that they have affordable electricity in order to be able to offset those higher costs of delivery," Wiens said.
Rural cooperatives serve 40 percent of the state's population.
Cooperatives serving central Montana use 40 percent coal-fired power. In eastern Montana, 70 percent of the power comes from coal-fired power plants, he said. Cooperatives west of the divide use mostly hydro-electric power, he said.
Reach Tribune Staff Writer Karl Puckett at 406-791-1471 or kpuckett@greatfalls- tribune.com. Follow him on Twitter: GFTrib_KPuckett.
The EPA will accept comment on the proposal for 120 days. Information on the proposed rule is at www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan.