from power plants. The rule requires coal power plants with a retirement date far in the future and new gas power plants that operate for prolonged periods to install carbon capture technology. Coal power plants with impending retirement dates are required to blend fracked gas with coal to reduce emissions, and gas power plants that operate intermittently to address spikes in demand are merely required to make incremental efficiency improvements.
The problem isn’t with these goals, although the reduction goals for coal plants closer to retirement are far too modest, at only 16 percent. The problem is with how the rule prescribes meeting them. Instead of simply emitting less carbon, the rule directs power plants to “capture” it through carbon capture and storage technology, which purportedly removes carbon dioxide from smokestacks using chemical solvents, and then transports it via pipelines in order to bury it underground.