Senator Cramer Questions EPA Administrator on Rules Targeting Coal Plants and Grid Reliability
“Economically, competitively…we need to be more realistic.”
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) questioned U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan at a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing on Tuesday.
He first questioned Administrator Regan on the EPA’s emissions standards for coal-fired power plants announced two weeks ago. He reiterated the 90 percent carbon dioxide capture rate mandated by EPA in its Clean Power Plan 2.0 is not yet adequately demonstrated at the agency’s prescribed levels. He specifically highlighted comments submitted by SaskPower in Canada, whose plant was referenced by the EPA as justification for the rule. Their comments to the agency clarify the plant captures 65 to 70 percent after years of fine-tuning. Senator Cramer also expressed his concern that these rules are an impossibility by design, with the intention of shuttering coal power plants.
“One of the things about best emission standards is it requires adequately demonstrated [technology], the illustration that EPA often uses is a SaskPower plant that has carbon capture on it, that captures, after years of finetuning, 65 to 70%. It looks to me like 90% is a setup for failure. The goal is to shut down coal, to go after coal. […] When you prescribe a solution that can't be adequately demonstrated or isn't adequately demonstrated, it looks to me like an impossibility by design,” said Cramer.
He then asked Administrator Regan how the agency’s rule would be durable in the face of the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA.
“The Supreme Court was very clear in the West Virginia case that you can't prescribe outside the fence line. And it seems that if CO2, which has to be piped to geological formations able to take the CO2, can be hundreds of miles away, that's by definition outside the fence line. So how do you have a durable rule in the face of the Supreme Court's decision that you have to stay within the fence line?” asked Cramer.
Senator Cramer concluded his questioning by highlighting the necessity of 24/7 energy sources like nuclear and coal to back up the unreliability of renewable energy, like wind and solar.
“The [Clean Power Plan 2.0] sets what I think is an arbitrary 20% annual runtime limit for simple cycle natural gas plants. Realizing that, other than natural gas, the only other fuel that's not nuclear that's 24/7, is coal. And so, the only way to back up unreliable, intermittent energy sources like wind or solar is to have these simple cycle natural gas combustion turbines. […] Every utility is going to have five [times] the simple cycle gas plants to back up the unreliable energy, the clean energy. I don't see that as a cost savings, that looks to me like unnecessary, redundant investment. […] Has anybody considered this might actually be counterproductive?” asked Cramer.
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