Power Plant Emissions Plan Unachievable, Court Told

An Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring power plants to reduce emissions by using carbon capture technology is unachievable, business groups and Republican-led states argued in federal court Friday, the Washington Examiner reported.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, heard oral arguments in West Virginia v. EPA, a lawsuit filed against the agency, over a rule requiring new and existing power plants that plan to operate past 2039 to reduce 90% of their carbon pollution by 2032, the Examiner said.

To meet the EPA's standards, power plants must install carbon capture and sequestration/storage technology (CCS), but the plaintiffs argued no power plant has successfully implemented carbon capture technology for 90% of a facility's annual CO2 emissions, according to the Examiner.

"EPA cannot name a single facility that has ever accomplished this rule's mandate of a system of facility wide, annual 90% carbon capture," Scott Keller, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the Examiner. "We are trying to get better at carbon capture. We're trying to address that problem, but we're also trying to provide reliable electricity for the nation.

Chloe Kolman, an attorney for the EPA, said the agency relied on "extensive, direct and corroborating evidence" that this emission reduction has been demonstrated, before putting the regulation in place.

Kolman said the EPA has determined that 90% of CCS will be technologically sound and installed by 2032.

In 2022, the Supreme Court struck down the Obama administration's clean power regulations, which the new EPA regulations were meant to replace.

• Supreme Court Limits EPA's Regulation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions
• West Virginia AG to Newsmax: EPA Never Had Authority Before SCOTUS Ruling