Coal

A rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directs 36 states to revise their Clean Air Act State Implementation Plans (SIPs) to eliminate exemptions for excess emissions of air pollutants at power plants during startup, shutdown, or when the plant malfunctions.

Boosted by President Obama’s inaugural address commitment to mitigate climate change, congressional Democrats have initiated several more climate measures. A legislative packet that seeks to mitigate climate change by enacting a carbon "fee" of $20 per ton of emitted carbon or methane equivalent was introduced last week by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). In the House, as several Democratic amendments for climate change hearings were voted down, more than 40 lawmakers urged President Obama to create a panel that would help communities deal with climate change events.

An agreement reached on Friday between PNM, New Mexico’s largest electricity provider, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls for the retirement of two units at the 1,800-MW coal-fired San Juan Generating Station by 2017 to comply with federal visibility rules. The remaining two units will be retrofitted with selective noncatalytic reduction technology by 2016, a nitrogen-oxide reducing technology.

A think tank affiliated with the New York University School of Law is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate cuts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all 50 U.S. states through a little-used section of the Clean Air Act.

Members of the Mississippi House passed a pair of rate mitigation and securitization bills that would allow the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) to approve a multiyear rate plan for Mississippi Power’s $2.88 billion Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant that is under construction in Kemper County.

President Obama outlined a number of key energy-related measures in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, urging Congress to pursue legislation to mitigate climate change and calling for an expansion of clean energy and reduced red-tape for natural gas and oil permits.

FutureGen 2.0, a government-backed project that involves the upgrade of a coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., with oxy-combustion technology to capture 90% of that plant’s carbon emissions and then sequester them underground, has entered its second phase, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) imposition of a federal implementation plan (FIP) to curb regional haze that could force coal-fired power plants in Arizona to install $1 billion in pollution controls was challenged by the state in federal court last week.

Citing low natural gas prices, Duke Energy announced on Feb. 1 that it would shutter its 1920s-built Buck and Riverbend stations two years before the coal-fired plants were slated for retirement. The company had chosen to retire the plants just before April 2015, which is the compliance deadline for recently enacted federal environmental rules.

A newly announced resource strategy could require Duluth, Minn.–based Minnesota Power to convert its 110-MW Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes, Minn., to a natural gas peaking facility in 2015, install environmental upgrades at its 558-MW Clay Boswell Energy Center Unit 4 in Itasca County, and retire one of three coal-fired units at its 225-MW Taconite Harbor facility in Schroeder.