EPA –EAB Power Plant Carbon Emission Limitation Decision

            Deseret Power is a regional generation and transmission cooperative in Utah meeting the power requirements of its six member retail systems, and selling surplus power to municipalities, power marketers and other wholesale electric systems in six states. On Thursday, November 13 the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) three judge Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) reached a decision regarding EPA’s issuance of a prevention of significant deterioration (“PSD”) permit for Deseret Power’s existing Bonanza Plant to construct a new waste-coal-fire generating unit along the Utah-Colorado border near Bonanza, Utah.

The EAB judges ruled that EPA regional officials did not provide an adequate reason for not imposing carbon dioxide "best available control technology" limits on the Deseret plant. The EAB remanded the EPA’s previous permit decision back to the agency with instructions that the agency "reconsider whether or not to impose" such a limit.

The decision could potentially have a wide spread impact on coal fire power plants throughout the country. One way to resolve the carbon emission problem is carbon capture and storage (“CCS”) technology that pumps the carbon underground rather than emitting it into the atmosphere.  However, CCS technology is still being perfected. There is little doubt it will have a dramatic impact on reducing the level of carbon emissions from plants but the open question is: When will it be ready for implementation?

This article was authored by Donnie L. Adkins, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.