Coal’s out. Clean power’s in. Maybe

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Apr 26, 2024 View in browser   By Arianna Skibell Illustration by Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (source images via iStock, Francis Chung/POLITICO After years of decline, coal may finally be on its way out. That is, if President Joe Biden’s new climate rule for power plants survives legal scrutiny. Despite contributing just 16 percent of U.S. electricity last year, coal still wields some political might in Washington, writes Alex Guillén. But the industry is losing two of its most powerful advocates, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. And the Biden administration’s new climate rule released Thursday could make it prohibitively expensive for energy companies to keep burning coal. The rule would also curb pollution from new natural gas turbines. Coal industry supporters are now mobilizing to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency regulation. Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has vowed to challenge it in court, where he succeeded two years ago in invalidating the Obama administration’s attempt at a big climate rule for the power sector, write Niina H. Farah, Lesley Clark and Pamela King. Unlike former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, Biden’s regulation drills down on carbon emissions at the power plant level, which legal experts say may save it from a similar fate before the Supreme Court. “EPA’s new rule sticks to its plain vanilla, long-standing approach to reduce emissions through systems that help a source operate more cleanly,” said Dena Adler with the New York University School of Law. Under the new regulation, power plants have until 2032 to slash or capture 90 percent of their atmospheric pollution. If they can’t comply, they must exit the grid by 2039. The measure aims to curb 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next two decades. That’s the equivalent of taking 328 million gasoline-powered cars off the road. Court battles over the rule are likely to center on whether the Biden administration overstepped the limits the Supreme Court set in deciding West Virginia v. EPA, which overturned Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The court ruled that agencies cannot regulate matters of vast political and economic significance without explicit direction from Congress. (The justices didn’t say how vast the impact would need to be to trigger that requirement.) Morrisey said Biden’s new climate rule violates that standard by striving to use unattainable pollution limits to put coal plants out of business, calling EPA an “out-of-control agency.” But EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters that he’s confident the agency’s new regulation will withstand legal scrutiny. “We have spent time ensuring that each path taken is durable,” Regan said.   Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net. Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Alex Guillén breaks down the importance of Biden's latest climate rules along with the expected political and legal challenges.   THE GOLD STANDARD OF ENERGY POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries, like energy, equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other. Our energy reporting team—including Ben Lefebvre, Alex Guillen and Kelsey Tamborrino—is embedded with the market-moving legislative committees and agencies in Washington and across states, delivering unparalleled coverage of energy policy and the energy industry. We bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY.     Power Centers Illustration by Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (source images via iStock) Is carbon capture ready? Biden's new climate rule for power plants relies on carbon capture, renewing debates about whether the technology is up for the task and whether utilities can comply with the new rules while energy demand is surging, writes a team of E&E News reporters. Edison Electric Institute President Dan Brouillette, whose group represents utilities, said the association is concerned that carbon capture “is not yet ready for full-scale, economywide deployment.” Chinese solar panels spark U.S. feud A flood of Chinese solar components is pitting American businesses that want cheap equipment against those who want to make it, write Kelsey Tamborrino and Benjamin Storrow. That's creating deep divisions in the U.S. solar industry and causing political headaches for Biden's climate agenda. Azerbaijan says gas is 'a gift of the gods' Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan — the host of the U.N.’s next climate talks — used a major address Friday to tell Europe it needs the country's natural gas, write Gabriel Gavin and Karl Mathiesen. Aliyev told a gathering of ministers in Berlin that his country’s fossil fuel reserves are “a gift of the gods” and divine aid for Europe as it shifts off Russian energy supplies.   POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today.     In Other News Earth’s climate hero: Will stashing more CO2 in the ocean help slow climate change? Unfrozen in time: Climate change is slowing Earth’s rotation. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Gas flaring on public lands in North Dakota is shown. | Matthew Brown/AP North Dakota and three other Republican-led states are suing to block an Interior Department rule that revamps methane regulations for fossil fuel drilling on public lands. The United Nations is working to establish a set of principles to guide governments and companies in producing critical minerals that it hopes will help solve climate change. The Biden administration has finalized regulations allowing the transfer of tax credits and reshaping of financing structures for clean energy projects. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!   Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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