Tag: Environmental Protection Agency

With New Regulations Coming, What's the Future for Coal?

The Environmental Protection Agency is going to be releasing new rules on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants in the next few weeks. It’s an issue of great concern for many who rely on coal for work. But some also see it as an opportunity.

About 84 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions into Earth’s atmosphere are from carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and much of that carbon dioxide comes from burning fossil fuels like coal. The EPA is taking action as, under the Clean Air Act, to enforce cuts in carbon emissions for cleaner air.

In September of last year, the agency put proposed new rules on how much carbon dioxide future power plants may release into the air. This includes capping carbon dioxide emissions to about 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour, depending on the size of the turbines in those new plants.

New Rules on the Horizon

While at this point, everything is conjecture in terms of what the agency will seek in its newest regulations, pertaining to existing power plants  it is expected that states will have to figure out ways to reduce carbon emissions from their plants substantially in the next 15 years.

There are several ideas over how this can be done, but it certainly won’t be easy for many utilities to reduce emissions right away. One strategy is to do something known as fuel switching. This essentially means instead of burning coal at power plants, technical adjustments would be made to the plant so the facility would essentially burn natural gas instead, or co-fire coal with natural gas, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“Some coal plants depending on the technology and the vintage can be switched to burn natural gas. A lot of utilities are looking at this,” said James Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at WVU.

“That’s going on now with the wide availability of natural gas, utilities are doing that for economic reasons. That would also presumably will be a compliance option under these regulations. Or you could co-fire some natural gas with the coal, or biomass with the coal.”

Another proposal the EPA is pursuing is for utilities to use carbon capture and storage technologies. This is a method that involves taking the carbon emissions and storing them underground, instead of releasing them into the atmosphere. It’s something American Electric Power tried at a Southern West Virginia plant a few years back: essentially storing the carbon right there at the site, and the whole project took eight years simply to get  up and running. But it didn’t work out in the end. Jeffrey La Fleur is a vice president of generating assets at AEP.

“The debate in Congress ended, and they decided not to take up the carbon issue. That debate stopped. We got the stagnation in public policy; the carbon issue got stuck in the mud. Nothing was moving,” said La Fleur.

“When we go to our commissions to get recovery of any cost, we are a public utility, to recover any cost; they are not interested in paying for any technology that’s not required.”

Despite the carbon capture project not working, La Fleur says there are no regrets about that project.

“I think we were successful in doing out with what we set to do. I think it was a great project, I don’t necessarily think we would have done anything differently. I think we would be a lot further down the road now if we had a little more foresight on the government’s part to develop the technology,” said La Fleur.

“That technology is not commercially available. It’s not commercially viable. It’s got to be further developed.”

Needing Resources

That means funding. La Fleur says public utilities that are interested in CCS need the help of the U.S. Department of Energy to get more money to do it. But even with funding, La Fleur says utilities, policy makers, and the general public needs to have patience…because change won’t be coming fast enough for some.

“The EPA is going to come out with a proposed rule in June. Are they going to give the states enough time to get with the companies, to come up with a plan. That I think has been the issue,” said La Fleur.

“We need to have the proper funding to develop the technology going forward.”

Whatever rules the EPA comes out with- some in the coal industry are expected to file lawsuits opposing them.

EPA Seeks Comment on Fracking Chemicals Disclosure

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on ways to disclose information about the chemicals used in the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking.

The EPA says in a Friday release that it is also seeking input on incentives and programs that could help develop safer fracking chemicals.

The 90-day comment period is an advanced notice of proposed new rules, but is no guarantee that the regulations will become law. The EPA could also propose voluntary steps for energy companies to take. During the fracking process water, sand and chemicals are injected into such deep underground formations to free oil or gas.

The gas rich Marcellus Shale lies under large parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. 

EPA to Gauge Safety of Inhaling MCHM

Months after a chemical spilled into 300,000 West Virginians' water source, federal officials want to determine at what level people can safely breathe…

  Months after a chemical spilled into 300,000 West Virginians’ water source, federal officials want to determine at what level people can safely breathe the chemical’s fumes.

Over the next few months, the Environmental Protection Agency will work on detecting crude MCHM in the air and creating a safety standard for inhaling it.

It’s the first time federal officials will factor in precautions for more than just consuming the water contaminated by MCHM.

Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater says her state agency can use the measurement to respond to complaints about odors associated with the material. That includes cleanup at the Freedom Industries spill site and companies that produce, store or use the coal cleaning chemical.

The Jan. 9 spill spurred a water ban for four to 10 days.

'Can Coal Ever Be Clean?' NatGeo Explores Role in Climate Change

A feature article in April’s edition of National Geographic Magazine examines what America and other key countries are doing to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

The article comes as new regulations from the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are up for public comment. 

The article assumes that humans are inducing global climate change, an idea that some Republicans as well as the West Virginia Coal Association, still question. 

Wacky Weather

The calendar says it’s Spring but for West Virginia and other states across the country it’s been the seemingly never ending winter.

But doesn’t climate change theory say that the earth is warming?

The West Virginia Coal Association has picked up on what they called the “inconvenient truth” for Mr. Al Gore in a tweet that showed a picture of snow in the usually sunny Florida. 

January 27, 2014

The tweet refers, of course, to the documentary the former vice president hosted called, “The Inconvenient Truth” that predicts catastrophic events that could happen on earth if the climate continues to change as most scientists predict.  

Another tweet from the West Virginia Coal Association on January 25, 2014.

Scientists and climatologists have pointed to ‘extreme weather patterns’ as evidence that the climate is changing because of increases in carbon dioxide into the atmosphere–a change largely contributed to by ever-increasing energy demands by growing human populations.

The West Virginia Coal Association did not immediately return our request for comment on this story.

Update March 28, 2014 10:25 p.m.

Three days later, the West Virginia Coal Association has not returned our request for comment.

To understand an element of the current political climate of climate change, perhaps we should look back at a federal subcommittee hearing hosted in December 2013.

In a release Republican Chairman Lamar Smith of Texas said, "“Administration officials and the national media regularly use the impacts from hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts and floods to justify the need for costly climate change regulations. The fact is there is little evidence that climate change causes extreme weather events.  Instead of trying to scare the American people and promote a political agenda, the administration should try to protect the lives and property of our nation’s residents from extreme weather by better weather forecasting.  Politicians and others should rely on good science, not science fiction, when they discuss extreme weather.  Otherwise, they will lack credibility when advocating new policy changes.”

Dr. David Tilly of Pennsylvania State university also testified that while science doesn’t know everything, climate change is real.

But let’s get back to the article in National Geographic Magazine. It doesn’t question where the world currently gets electricity.

Credit Robb Kendrick / National Geographic
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National Geographic
Norfolk, Virginia At the Lamberts Point Coal Terminal, railcars loaded with coal line up to fill waiting ships. Some 20 million tons of coal—about 2 percent of U.S. production—move through this terminal each year, most of it from Appalachia.

Freelance reporter Michelle Nijhuis points out that coal provides 40 percent of the world’s electricity in the article called, “Can Coal Ever Be Clean?”.

“Coal provides a lot of jobs,” Nijhuis said. “Coal provides a lot of power not only in the U.S. but to people throughout the world who are getting power for the first time and many times it’s the cheapest, cheapest in dollar terms.”

Nijhuis also points out that while “cheap natural gas has lately reduced the demand for coal in the U.S., … everywhere else, especially in China, demand is surging,” not only for 80% of china’s electric power, but for things like plastic and rayon production too.

So basically, coal’s not forecasted to go away.

Madison, West Virginia They call it mountaintop removal. For each ton of coal taken from the Hobet 21 mine, 20 cubic yards of mountain are blasted away, then dumped in valleys. Hundreds of square miles of Appalachian ridges have been dismantled this way.
Credit Robb Kendrick / National Geographic

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So can coal ever be clean?

Nijhuis begins the article by pointing to West Virginia and the creeks polluted with acid mine drainage and remnants of mountain top removal or strip mining as evidence to say  … no, it can’t.

Nijhuis also says that coal “produces 39 percent of global CO2 emissions.”

The American Association for the Advancement of Science just last week released a statement that points to the research of 97 percent of climate scientists, who say human caused climate change is real.

The report says the evidence is increased global temperature over the last 100 years, rising sea level, and the more frequent happenings of some types of extreme weather events – such as heat waves and heavy precipitation events. They say, that “recent scientific findings indicate that climate change is likely responsible for the increase in the intensity of many of these events in recent years.”

Nijhuis has covered the environment and science for about 15 years and says that majority speaks volumes.

“Science never agrees 100% …. on anything,” she said. “Ninety-seven percent very rarely agree on anything.”

So what now? 

Credit Robb Kendrick / National Geographic
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National Geographic
Poca, West Virginia The Poca High School “Dots” practice near an American Electric Power coal-fired plant that powers nearly two million homes. Scrubbers clean some of the sulfur and mercury—but not the carbon—from the smoke.

According to the article, we need coal for electricity, and scientists say we need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The Obama Administration and the EPA is expected to draft new rules meant to limit carbon pollution from power plants under the Clean Air Act by June of this year. The West Virginia Coal Association has launched a campaign encouraging coal mining families to send a message during the comment period to the EPA to say “they are destroying the lives of West Virginians who just want to work.”

The idea is to pay for the amount of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere. For power companies that would likely mean raising rates for customers. A tough point to sell when you’re not buying the climate change argument.

What about carbon capture?  Nijhuis points out that the Mountaineer power plant in West Virginia has successfully captured carbon, but with enormous contraptions collecting small percentages – still, Nijhuis says, it’s something.

“Putting some regulations in place will help jump start innovation,” she said, “and help the coal industry and science figure out how to further reduce carbon pollution from coal plants and make those technologies more reliable more efficient, more reliable hopefully cheaper.”

There’s also a market for some CO2 which can be used in oil fields to pull out pockets of oil as well as in the carbonated beverage industry. On that note, the “Friends of Coal” has also tweeted an article that points to a company that has a more efficient process to use carbon dioxide for making valuable chemical feed stocks.

Why should America bear the brunt of reducing CO2 emissions? China emits the largest amount of total carbon emissions, but the US still produces the highest volumes per capita, the article points out. Well,

Credit Robb Kendrick / National Geographic
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National Geographic
Shuozhou, China The sun is sometimes obscured by soot from the Shentou Number 2 power plant in Shanxi Province, China. A lightning-bolt sculpture stands in the center of the neighborhood that houses the plant’s workers.

 

Nijhuis says China is working on reducing ‘air pollution’ and has some of the most efficient power plants in the world.

Of course there are renewable energy options.

Nijhuis says the takeaway from this article is about thinking about the “and” and not the “or”.

“We need all of these technologies,” she said. “I think it benefits us all to think broadly now.”

The deadline for comments on the new regulations is May 5.

Murray Energy Sues EPA, Alleges Law Noncompliance

An Ohio-based coal operator is suing the head of the Environmental Protection Agency over the agency’s administration and enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
 
Murray Energy alleges in its lawsuit that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has failed to comply with the law’s requirement to evaluate the potential impact of the agency’s regulatory actions on employment.
 
Murray Energy and several subsidiaries filed the lawsuit on Monday in U.S. District Court in Wheeling.
 
The lawsuit asks the court to order McCarthy to evaluate whether the EPA’s regulatory actions have resulted in coal industry job losses or employment shifts over the past six years. It also seeks an injunction barring the EPA from approving further regulations affecting coal employment until the evaluation is completed.
 
The EPA didn’t immediately comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.
 

Five Things West Virginia Heard Wednesday from CDC, EPA, & Gov. Tomblin

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was joined Wednesday by state officials as well as officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Environmental Protection Agency to provide an update to the ongoing response to the January 9 chemical spill by Freedom Industries into the Elk River.

Here’s what we learned from the briefing:

1. The 1 parts per million threshold for MCHM doesn’t declare the water “safe.”

Dr. Tanja Popovic, Deputy Associate Director for Science for the CDC, echoed earlier explanations that the 1 ppm standard for MCHM levels in the water was determined by three safety factors, which multiply to 1,000. She also stated that the recommendation means the water is “acceptable for use” rather than “safe.”

2. CDC officials say it is “unlikely” for the water to cause long term health effects.

Popovic also says that it is “unlikely” for the water to cause long term health effects based on the “short-term exposure” of those who reported symptoms, as well as their symptoms being deemed “generally mild.” She also says the CDC has no plans to monitor the population affected by the chemical spill and subsequent water crisis.

3. The state interagency team who has been involved in the efforts following the chemical spill does not plan to test homes.

While many reporters asked about testing in homes, no one would answer questions about whether or not this type of testing would calm concerns in the area. Gov. Tomblin, however, did say he is not against the idea of testing “a sample” of homes but, does not plan to test all customers affected by the spill.

Update: Just after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Governor Tomblin made this announcement via Twitter:

4. EPA officials are taking a look at research to determine whether chemicals will leave residuals in pipes.

EPA Region 3 Drinking Water Branch Chief Bill Arguto says the goal of a past study done by the agency’s Water Security Division looked to see what chemicals would leave residuals in a water piping system. He says chemicals with low partition coefficients would not leave a residual.

“The two chemicals that are involved here are MCMH (sic) and PPH—have very low partition coefficients. So, it is anticipated that it would not leave a residual. But, it is an issue that we need to look at,” Arguto said.

The studies Arguto spoke of did not take a look at MCHM or PPH, which were the ones involved in the January 9 spill.

5. EPA officials have deemed the site of the leak at Freedom Industries is “stabilized.”

Shawn Garvin, the EPA’s Administrator for Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic) says his agency has been involved in response efforts since day one and the agency had a team on site on January 10. Garvin said the EPA has deemed the site of the leak “stabilized” but expects that the chemical is in the ground there. He also noted that work is underway to empty and dismantle storage tanks.

After Wednesday’s briefing, what questions do you still have about the chemical leak?
 

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