CHARLESTON, WV (May 9, 2014) – Claiming the U.S. EPA has completely ignored the tremendous impacts a new proposal will have on coal mining-dependent states and low income populations, the State of West Virginia and representatives from the West Virginia Coal Association and business community today announced the filing of formal comments opposing EPA’s new source performance standards rule for CO2 emissions from new coal-fired power plants.
The news conference was held during the spring meeting of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute, Society of Professional Mining Engineers (SME) and West Virginia Coal Association, being held at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
“This rule, if implemented, will prohibit the construction of new coal-fired power plants in America, further decrease the reliability of America’s power grid and raise consumer electric rates,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “As we’ve stated all along, these rules are another attempt by the Obama Administration to put the coal industry – and tens of thousands of West Virginians employed by it – out of work”.
“While the proposed rule is fraught with technical flaws that betray the intent of Congress in passing the Clear Air Act and we question the rules’ legality, the bottom line is that this will shred the reliability of our nation’s electrical system and drastically increase costs to consumers at a time when they can least afford it.”
“Unfortunately, the outrageous standards these rules set haven’t been demonstrated to be technically feasible and can’t be implemented at a reasonable cost.”
Under the proposed rule, EPA mandates the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as the Best System of Emission Reduction for coal-fired electric generating units. These rules establish a 1,100 pound carbon dioxide per thousand megawatt hours emission limit for new coal-fired electric generating units.
To justify the selection of CCS for coal-fired units, EPA relied on a demonstration project at the Southern Company’s Kemper, Mississippi plant. This facility has had cost overruns resulting in it costing nearly three times the original estimate. In addition, this plant is adjacent to operating oil fields – which provide the ability to sequester the carbon underground – which further contributes to it being “anything but” a reliable example.
“Large scale CCS technology is not technologically feasible and has never been proven or used on an operating power plant,” Raney said. “Even if it was feasible at these levels of use, it would be so expensive the normal American could not afford it.”
Raney continued, “The EPA knows this, yet has set this standard as the benchmark. This effectively means that no new coal-fired power plants will be constructed in this country.”
“This is a startling prohibition by a government agency and they offer no viable alternatives to generating 42% of this nation’s electricity – currently coal’s share – while hundreds of power plants are being forced to close without any announced substitutes,” Raney offered. “This is in the face of “near-miss” blackouts and brownouts last winter, when many of the plants scheduled to close this year were operating at 89% capacity.”
Today – May 9, 2014 – is the deadline to provide comment to EPA on this rule.
For additional information contact the West Virginia Coal Association at (304) 342-4153.