Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey have introduced a new bill that strictly limits how new coal-fired power plants are being built. From their announcement:
"Comprehensive economy-wide regulation to address global warming is coming soon," said Rep. Waxman. “But new uncontrolled coal-fired power plants are being built today. My legislation says: “No new plants without emissions controls.” The alternative is senseless - locking in decades of additional global warming emissions and requiring greater emissions reductions across the U.S. economy to compensate."
"If we lose control of coal, we will have lost control of the climate," said Markey, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "This bill will make companies prepare for the future and prevent them from building low-tech coal-fired power plants before a global warming bill is passed that will necessitate the use of the newest, most climate-friendly technology. "
Without emissions controls, a new coal-fired power plant will emit hundreds of millions of tons of global warming pollution over its fifty-year lifetime. Over 100 new plants have been proposed, and even if just a portion of these are built, they will emit over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide a year. One of these plants alone could offset the reductions that will be achieved through the Northeastern states' Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The bill places a moratorium on either EPA or states issuing permits to new coal-fired power plants without state-of-the-art control technology to capture and permanently sequester the plant's carbon dioxide emissions. The moratorium extends until a comprehensive federal regulatory program for global warming pollution is in place.
The bill also bars a new coal-fired power plant without state-of-the-art control technology from receiving any free or reduced cost emissions allowances under a future federal program to address global warming.
While it's not an outright ban on new coal-fired power plants, it may work out to becoming an effective ban. Companies are not going to want to build coal-fired power plants when the costs of meeting these strict requirements are so high.
An outright ban on coal power plants, while it would be the most desirable action, isn't likely to pass either the House or Senate. As it is, this bill is going to have a long, hard fight in order to make it to the President's desk. And I highly doubt the President will sign such a strongly worded bill.
But more often than not, legislation of this type takes three or four attempts before it becomes law, and with a new President in office in less than a year, chances are it's only a matter of time before coal goes away forever.
Keep in mind, however, that while people may not be totally against coal-fired power plants if they're permanently sequestering CO2, there are still a lot of coal mines out there wreaking havoc on the environment. The only long-term solution is an outright ban, but I don't have a problem taking small steps towards that goal when the opportunity presents itself
The bill itself hasn't been assigned a number yet, and it isn't listed at the Library of Congress yet, but you can read the text of the bill as it was introduce here (pdf).
