Washington, May 11 (EFE).- The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed this Thursday new regulations to reduce emissions from coal and natural gas power plants.
If implemented, this initiative would avoid about 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2042, something that is equivalent to reducing the annual emissions of approximately half of the cars in the United States, the EPA said in a statement.
The agency calculates that the environmental and public health benefits would be of 85,000 million dollars, since the measures would also mean the reduction of other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, harmful to people’s health.
Among the possible advances, it is expected to prevent 1,300 premature deaths, more than 800 hospital visits and more than 300,000 asthma attacks, as well as 38,000 days of school absenteeism and 66,000 work days.
The proposed rules include strengthening the current regulation regarding natural gas combustion turbines, as well as establishing guidelines on fossil fuel electricity generators that states across the country should follow.
For example, for thermal power plants that continue to operate beyond 2039, it would be required by 2035 to prevent 90% of the carbon dioxide they emit from remaining in the atmosphere, removing it or preventing it from reaching it through the capture and storage technique. .
For large gas plants, the plan would also call for CO2 capture by 2035, or co-firing with 30% low-emission hydrogen by 2032 and nearly 100% by 2038.
Despite the fact that the new regulation was announced today, its application will take a while since, among other steps, it has to be submitted to public scrutiny and it is possible that it will face the occasional lawsuit in some state.
Power production is the country’s second largest source of heat-trapping gases, after transportation, according to national media. The proposal to address it comes after the US Supreme Court last year limited the authority of the Government against the emission of gases.
