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Policy Analysis

Compliance with Flexibility: State approaches to reduce GHG emissions from existing power plants

By Brian Keaveny, Paul Miller on June 8, 2014

In a June 2013 presidential memorandum, President Obama directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose carbon pollution reduction requirements for new and existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.

In doing so, the President instructed the agency to build on state efforts, and EPA has subsequently sought input from the states on ideas for the upcoming greenhouse gas (GHG) requirements.

This article focuses on the forthcoming GHG requirements for existing power plants, which EPA is developing separately from GHG requirements for new power plants. President Obama has directed EPA to propose GHG emission guidelines for existing power plants by June 1, 2014, and issue final guidelines by June 1, 2015. Many states are calling on EPA to craft these guidelines with flexible compliance options as they seek to use their own experiences and programs for achieving the federal GHG reduction requirements.

This article appears in the June 2014 issue of EM Magazine, a publication of the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA).

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