Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has filed suit with a US district court challenging the EPA’s proposed limits on carbon emissions from new power plants. Bruning invoked in a statement the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which prohibits the EPA from formulating best control technology rules based on federally funded projects. “Contrary to the Act, the EPA proposed greenhouse gas standards based on three inoperable coal plants which have received more than $2.5 billion in federal subsidies,” the statement said. One of the plants referenced in the AG’s complaint is Southern Co.’s Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi, which uses a trademarked coal gasification design and received nearly $700 million in federal grants and tax breaks.
The new standards, which the agency published Jan. 8, would set a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour from utility boilers and require new coal-fired power plants to install carbon capture and sequestration technologies. Bruning expressed his fear that the law would prevent any new power plants from being built in his state. Many who oppose the agency’s action believe it will spur the demise of coal-fired power in the United States.
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