Obama's Power Plant Standards Give Natural Gas Free Pass To Pollute Climate

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Date posted: 09/24/14

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) reports that the newly published EPA rules fall far short of addressing climate crisis, could undermine the President Obama climate legacy. The Obama administration proposed rule for regulating greenhouse pollution from new power plants gives the natural gas industry a free pass to pollute, says the CBD. The EPA New Source Performance Standards published today in the Federal Register propose standards that would not achieve any actual pollution reductions from gas-fired power plants, even though existing emissions-control technology would allow the industry to cut emissions. They indicate that the EPA lax in standards for gas-fired power plants contradict President Obama strong statements about the urgent need to cut carbon and other greenhouse pollution. His administration weak natural gas power-plant rules are a huge missed opportunity to fight the pollution that is warming our planet and pushing us toward climate chaos. President Obama's own climate scientists warned last year that temperatures could rise as much 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100 without rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, including methane that is released through oil and gas extraction as well as natural gas transportation and storage. Yet the EPAs newly published power plant proposed rules set standards for natural gas that will not require new plants to perform any better than old ones. Although the EPA standards for coal plants will reduce carbon pollution, the lax natural gas rules could lock the United States into continued reliance on fossil fuels for decades, contradicting the Presidents vision of quick action on climate change. Methane, in particular, is over 80 times more powerful at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and is a massive byproduct of the current oil and gas fracking boom, although the CBD did not mention the increasing offshore methane leaks from the sediments of the continental shelf.