August 2, 2024 - On July 19, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit allowed a Biden administration rule aimed at limiting carbon dioxide emissions from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to remain in place while legal challenges continue. The rule would require most coal-fired plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or close within eight years.

Opponents of the rule say it is not feasible and it threatens the reliability of the nation’s power grid. As noted by the Associated Press, the rules are a key part of the Biden administration’s plan to eliminate carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 2035 and nationwide by 2050.

Fossil fuel-generated electricity is not to be tossed out casually to serve climate goals. A look at the PJM electric grid, which serves the region from New York State to central Kentucky and from Indiana to Virginia, shows why.

To pick one time at random, at 7 a.m. Thursday, July 25, as the business day was about to begin, coal accounted for 16.3% of the region’s power. Natural gas supplied 48.7%, so together those two fuels that the EPA wants to limit or eliminate provide almost two-thirds of the region’s power needs. Nuclear power supplied about 31.7%. Renewables? About 2.5%

As has been said here before, the PJM region — which includes New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and, yes, Washington, D.C., and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware — is not conducive to solar and wind power. Nuclear power takes decades to develop, given the expense of the technology and the permits that are required.

Carbon dioxide storage is expensive. Appalachian Power demonstrated that at its Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County, West Virginia, about a 90-minute drive from downtown Huntington. Removing CO2 from smokestack emissions and storing it underground was too expensive to continue without a large increase in rates, which the Public Service Commission denied.

So the case for early termination of coal-fired electricity doesn’t work for practical purposes, but there is a large issue underlying all this: Who should determine when the nation ends its reliance on fossil fuels as a source of electricity? Should it be the EPA, or should it be the president and the Congress? Using the EPA to set such a deadline shields elected officials from pushback by voters. It’s politically convenient, but it’s an abdication of responsibility.

Asking members of Congress to go on the record regarding such a move may be politically naïve, but it should be done.

Eight years simply is not enough time to overhaul the power grid for a region as large and diverse as PJM’s. True, coal-fired power is on its way out for economic reasons, but the EPA’s plan would accelerate coal’s decline too fast and too soon.