Input Stories

The Environmental Protection Agency’s final nitrogen oxide emissions rule for new gas-fired stationary turbines, released last Friday, is more lenient than what the last administration proposed (POLITICO Pro, subscription).

What’s going on: “The rule eases the cost of building new gas-fired turbines for power plants or industrial uses as the Trump administration works to boost fossil fuels and the artificial intelligence and data center industries.”

• The rule, which covers facilities that began construction or modifications after Dec. 13, 2024, holds that the “best systems of emission reduction,” or BSER, for nitrogen oxide emissions “is the continued use of combustion controls for all but one subcategory of new, modified or reconstructed turbines” (Utility Dive).
• The prior EPA’s proposal would have required many new gas-powered turbines to install post-combustion selective catalytic reduction, or SCR, controls.
• Under the newly finalized rule—which the EPA estimates will cut emissions by up to 296 tons in the next six years—only the biggest turbines running the most often are required to include SCR.

The savings: “The EPA estimated that the final rule will save power plant owners $87 million over eight years,” according to Utility Dive.

• The agency also said the rule will have public health benefits, such as reduced instance of asthma and cardiovascular problems.
• Unlike in years past, it did not assign these benefits a dollar value, saying such monetization gave Americans a “false sense of precisions” about expected health outcomes, according to POLITICO Pro.