December 1, 2009

What Is BACT for CO2?

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Assume, for the moment, that the U.S. Congress is unable to agree on legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions from industry, vehicles, and power plants (the carrot approach). Further, assume that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eventually promulgates rules that require power plants to reduce carbon emissions (the stick approach). Have you given any thought to the range of possible best available control technologies (BACT) that the EPA might require under the Clean Air Act (CAA)?

The first domino fell when the Supreme Court found in its April 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA has the authority to regulate six key greenhouse gases as pollutants under the CAA. Relying on this decision, the EPA, as required by the CAA, rapidly prepared an "endangerment finding" to establish the cause-and-effect relationship "that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations." Sources within the agency say that the final decision is expected by the end of this year.

Despite the predictable judicial review, it’s inevitable that an endangerment finding is coming. I have no doubt that the EPA will then immediately begin preparing draft rules to control those six gases, the principal one being CO₂.

Let’s take this thought experiment one step further. Should the endangerment finding pass judicial scrutiny (and that’s a big "if"), then expect a flood of new regulations related to CO₂ (of most interest to power generators using fossil fuels) to blanket our economy within a year or two. For power plants, those emissions would fall under the EPA’s New Source Review permit program.

My guess is that the rules would necessarily cover all fossil plants, as little CO₂ reduction would be achieved if they only applied to new permits. If this were true, then the next question becomes: What is BACT for CO₂?