EPA Clen Power Plant

Understanding EPA’s: Clean Power Plan

On 30th September, 2015 CSU co-sponsored by the Energy Institute gave us the opportunity to be part of the Energy Workshop "Understanding EPA`s: Clean Power Plan'', which was co-moderated by Mrs. Diana Wall (Director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability)and Mr. Bryan Willian (Founders of CSU`s Engines & Energy Conservation of the CSU Energy Institute). This workshop was hosted by Mr. Bill Ritter (Former Colorado Governor and currently the Director of the Center for New Energy Economy) and Mr. Patrick Cummins (Senior Policy Advisor of the Center for New Energy Economy).

During the workshop, the speakers explained about the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), its mission, main goals and how the Clean Air Act (CAA) would result in huge changes on American's conties actions. They also talked about the Clean Power Plan and its goals and expectations to reduce CO2 emissions (including in Colorado) for the next years.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the federal government created for the protection of human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by U.S. Congress.One of the EPA's regulation is the Clear Air Act (CAA), a U.S. Federal Law created to control air pollution on a national level. Mr. Ritter talked about the Clean Power Plan which was announced on August 3, 2015 by the President Barack Obama as a try to reduce carbon pollution from power plants once the carbon dioxide is a greenhouse house and its concentrations has been increasing during the past years acting as one of the responsible for climate changes. According to him, in places like Colorado and other Western States, the implementation of this regulations can be a big challenge for the next months because these states like to act according to their own rules. In other words, if the states don't adequate themselves to the Clean Power Plan regulations, EPA has the right to make value its regulations, applying penalties when necessary. Trying to make it work succesfully, EPA established the final goals in three forms: a) Rate-Based State Goal (measured in lb/MWh), b) Mass-Based State Goal (measured in total short tons of CO2), c) Mass-Based State Goal with a new source Complement (measured in total short tons of CO2).  

According to EPA and its projections, by 2030, the Clean Power Plan will reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32% below 2005 levels and that's equal to the annual emissions from 166 million cars or 70% of our country’s passenger vehicles. This reduction will contribute significantly to the improvement of air quality in the U.S. Also, this regulation has like other goals 3 building blocks, determined as: 1) Improve operational efficiency of existing steam units 2) Shift generation from steam plants to existing Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) units 3) Shift generation to renewable energy. It's also very interesting to highlight the Clean Energy Incentive Program which will benefit the states that decide to make early  investments in renewable energy (RE) generation and demand-side energy efficiency (EE). These early projects will earn credits in 2020 and 2021.

At the end of the discussion, the spearkers answered some questions from the audience and one that really came to my mind was related to Methane Emissions. The audience questioned if this regulation would work for other greenhouse gases as well since they also contributed to climate changes, especially the Methane. Mr. Cummins answered that this rule is already finalized which means that it can control only carbon emissions but it's also a big step to new regulations that can be created in a near future, trying to avoid the bad affects on the ecosystem. As a conlusion, this workshop was really interesting to make us understand the Clean Power Plan better as long as its goals and importance but it was also important to remind us that a lot need to be done in a search for new sources of renewable energy to protect the ecosystem and minimize the bad effects on the environment.

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