RFF Floats Goldilocks Plan for Power CO2
An issue brief by Research Analyst Maya Domeshek and Senior Fellow Dallas Burtraw is profiled in POLITICO's Morning Energy newsletter.
RFF FLOATS GOLDILOCKS PLAN FOR POWER CO2: Resources for the Future on Tuesday proposed a potential path forward for EPA to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants via increased co-firing of natural gas. The strategy offers a less expansive, more legally defensible regulation than the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, but greater emissions reductions than the Trump-era Affordable Clean Energy rule, argue authors Maya Domeshek and Dallas Burtraw. The ACE rule rejected co-firing as a compliance option, but it already is used at a significant number of coal plants.
A co-firing regulation would reduce emissions about 10 percent further in 2030 than expected in a no-policy baseline, compared to 2005 numbers, Burtraw told ME. He added that a co-firing regulation is meant to “complement” other climate policies such as expanded wind and solar tax credits or a clean energy standard — either of which would require congressional action. They also argue a co-firing rule would offer a "soft landing" for coal plants and would curb conventional pollutants like sulfur dioxide as well.
