Biden’s Newest Big Climate Rule Will Rest on Rarely Used Technology

Bracewell’s Jeff Holmstead discussed with POLITICO the Biden administration’s expected push for carbon capture and sequestration to reduce power plants’ carbon output. This aggressive — even transformational — approach from EPA would usher in the most stringent regulations on fossil fuel plants in the nation’s history.

Holmstead said the agency’s stringent car and truck standards released earlier this month convinced him that EPA would use carbon capture as the basis for its power sector standards.

“I think the EV rule suggests that they’re likely to be pretty aggressive here,” said Holmstead. “So, I think [carbon capture and storage] is in the mix. But exactly how they do that and how they justify it, I don’t know.”

EPA, which estimated that its car and truck pollution rule could lead to EVs making up two-thirds of new sales by 2032, is poised to release two power plant rules near the end of April. One rule would target existing coal- and natural-gas-fired plants, and the other would address new gas plants.