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The EPA’s annual report on power plant emissions—released on February 18, 2022—reveals a 20% increase in sulfur dioxide (SO2), a 13% rise in mercury, and a 7% increase in carbon dioxide (CO2). The data also showed a 5% increase in nitrogen oxides (NOx) during ozone season (May 1 to September 30) and a 3% increase […]
The EPA announced final revisions to specific effluent guidelines and standards for “steam electric” power plants on August 31, 2020. The final rule leverages improved and less expensive pollution-control technologies and provides a more flexible implementation approach.
In a ruling that helps downwind states with areas in nonattainment with the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to vacate the EPA’s 2016 rule to update its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). However, the court did remand one […]
The EPA is proposing not to use its authority under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) to impose financial responsibility requirements on facilities in the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution sector.
The energy-water nexus is the current phrase used to connote the interdependence of energy and water. The generation of energy requires large volumes of water, mainly for cooling equipment at thermoelectric fossil fuel and nuclear power plants; much less water is needed for renewable energy, such as wind and solar.
“Beautiful, clean coal,” as President Donald Trump described it in his January 2018 State of the Union address, is still not making the comeback the president promised. In fact, power-plant coal consumption continues to drop in large increments and shows no sign of changing course. And the less coal power plants burn, the harder the […]
The EPA’s promulgation of multiple rules since 2001 to protect aquatic species that get swept into (entrainment) and against (impingement) industrial cooling water intake structures (CWISs) has met with legal challenges from both environmental groups and industry.
The use of ambient air to cool and condense steam at electric power plants is a costly alternative to water cooling, but the use of air, or dry cooling, is being gradually adopted by energy companies, reports the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Dry cooling or hybrid cooling—a combination of air and water—occurs in 3% […]
On September 27, 10 justices of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments from 16 attorneys divided over the legality of EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The hearing comprised a morning session that addressed whether authority for the EPA to promulgate the CCP exists in the Clean Air Act (CAA) […]