Steps the EPA Must Take to Reduce Global Warming Emissions
What the EPA Must Do:
The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take steps to reduce air pollution that harms the public’s health. The EPA is moving forward with its responsibility to set standards to reduce global warming emissions because the agency found that global warming emissions clearly do harm our health.
Where We Are Today
Despite ongoing attempts by politicians and industry groups to block the EPA from doing its job, the agency has started to move forward to reduce these dangerous pollutants from cars, trucks, power plants, and other large industrial polluters.
EPA Actions to Address Climate Change
- Finalizing Fuel Efficiency and Global Warming Emissions Standards for Vehicles
In April 2010, the EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) finalized joint global warming emissions and fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks for the 2012-2016 model year vehicles, and in November 2011, proposed new fuel efficiency and global warming emissions standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2017 through 2025. The administration will take comments on these standards until February 13, 2011. On August 9, 2011, EPA and DOT also adopted the first-ever standards for medium and heavy-duty vehicles. - Defining Which Major Polluters Will Have to Reduce Their Emissions
In May 2010, the EPA took the first steps to ensure that so-called “stationary sources,” including power plants, oil refineries, and other large industrial facilities, will have to start reducing global warming emissions once standards are finalized. First, the EPA established which facilities will have to comply–only those that are the very largest sources of carbon pollution. These include new facilities that will emit more than 100,000 tons of global warming emissions per year or plants making modifications that will increase their emissions by 75,000 tons or more per year. These facilities represent 70 percent of all United States global warming emissions from stationary sources.
Next, as of January 2, 2011, the EPA required those facilities to apply for and secure state permits to release global warming emissions – these permits will mandate that facilities use the “best available technology” to limit their global warming emissions. EPA guidelines for best available technology include using energy efficiency and certain types of biomass for these facilities – measures that will also cut fuel costs. - Crafting Carbon Standards for Power Plants and Oil Refineries
In 2010, the EPA announced its intention to issue standards that will actually limit emissions from power plants and oil refineries, which combined account for 40 percent of all U.S. global warming emissions. On March 27, 2012 the EPA finally released standards that will limit carbon pollution from new power plants. Future standards have the potential to reduce carbon pollution from existing sources, such as the nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants and oil refineries, as well as ensure that any new facilities meet strong performance standards. New emissions data reported by big power plants and other major industrial facilities show that power plants are the largest stationary source of U.S. global warming emissions, followed by petroleum refineries. In order to really tackle the threat of global warming, any EPA standards must address these sources of emissions. - The Timeline for Carbon Standards for Power Plants and Oil Refineries
On March 27, 2012 the EPA released long anticipitated standards to reduce carbon pollution from new power plants and existing plants undergoing major changes. These standards will contribute to a much needed transition toward a cleaner, healthier, and more modern energy future. And contrary to the doomsday predictions of the fossil fuel industry, these new standards will have minimal impact on reliability of our electrical grid. The timeline for standards for existing power plants—which are the major source of current global warming emissions—is uncertain.
The EPA was supposed to release a draft standard for oil refineries in December 2011, with the final standard to be released by November 2012. This timeline has also been delayed and EPA has yet to announce a new schedule.
In the future, additional standards could set similar emission limits for cement kilns, fertilizer plants, crude oil and natural gas production, and possibly steel plants and lead smelters. These standards have the potential to clean up and modernize some of our nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants, oil refineries, and industrial sources of emissions.
Other EPA Actions to Address Health Threats from Coal-Fired Power Plants
On July 6, 2011, the EPA issued the Cross State Air Pollution Rule to cut power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which cause numerous health problems including breathing difficulties, aggravation of asthma, and even premature death. On December 21, 2011, the EPA released a long-overdue final Mercury and Air Toxics standard that would control hazardous air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants that can lead to cancer, heart disease, neurological damage, birth defects, asthma attacks, and even premature death.
Additionally, the EPA is moving forward to regulate disposal and management of coal ash, a toxic by-product of coal-fired power plants that can cause ground and surface water contamination. It has also issued standards for power plant cooling water intake structures to help reduce their harmful environmental impacts.
Urgency and Importance of Swift Action
We are already feeling the effects of a warming world, and these effects will only get worse if we fail to swiftly and significantly reduce global warming emissions. It is critically important that the EPA's carbon standards be implemented without delay, and that they are based on the best available science.
UCS is working hard to ensure that the carbon standard for new power plants is finalized in 2012, and that the Obama administration issues a new timeline to craft standards for existing power plants and oil refineries as soon as possible.
Learn more
- Global Warming 101
- The Clean Air Act
- Attack on the Clean Air Act
- Regulating Toxic Pollutants from Power Plants under the Clean Air Act
Support our work
For more than 20 years, UCS has worked with leading experts to educate U.S. decision makers and the public about global warming and implement practical solutions at an international, national, regional, and state level. You can help support this work:
