-adapted from “Southern Tops Ranking of U.S. Carbon Emitters as New Rules Loom” in Bloomberg Businessweek

Why focus on existing power plants? “Because that’s where the emissions are.” said David Doniger, policy director for the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Clearly, it is more challenging for existing facilities to retrofit their operations to decrease emissions than it is for new facilities to integrate carbon capture and other designs into their plans, but soon it will be necessary for some of the largest emitters to do so.

A list of the top 100 polluters was released by the EPA in advance of an expected statement from the White House of emission standards for new CO2 emitting power plants. Soon to follow should be standards for existing plants, though no specific release date for existing facilities has been announced.

The top ten highest polluters on the list account for 187 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and equivalent pollutants identified as affecting climate change. Three of these are owned by Southern Co. of Atlanta, identified as the largest power company in the U.S. by market value. Obviously, potential emission regulations would affect Southern and the other companies who own the highest ranked plants on the list more than whose emissions weren’t enough to put them on the EPA’s radar, but all coal and natural gas refineries will eventually need to adapt their operations to conform to standards.

Advocates of carbon capture and sequestration technology hope that the EPA will set standards for new construction of plants with CO2 emissions at a level that is in line with natural gas emissions standards. If they do so, then new facilities will need to integrate full CCS technology.
Existing plants, such as those three in the top ten list owned by Southern, Co., have already invested billions in carbon capture technologies, and will continue to do so in preparation for potential regulation.

Carbon capture and storage researchers and supporters have long said that government regulation is the best way to advance the technology, because most of the highest emitters will not adopt CCS until forced to do so. While no definitive legislation or regulation has yet been adopted, signs point to a time in the not-too-distant future when standards will be more strongly enforced.