April 26, 2024 - The Biden Administration imposed a sweeping new suite of environmental regulations including a requirement for coal-fired power plants to capture 90% of their greenhouse gas emissions by 2039.

Local leaders say the regulations, which were introduced Thursday, are a big ask that's likely to push many generating facilities out of service and slowly choke Wyoming’s biggest mineral industry.

The rules make good on the administration’s promise to crack down on emissions and address climate change, and they are projected to reduce carbon pollution by 1.38 billion metric tons in the following decade. That volume is roughly the pollution equivalent of an entire year's worth of U.S. electric power sector emissions, or the annual pollution equivalent of 328 million gasoline cars, according to the Department of Energy.

But for Wyoming, the nation’s number one coal producer, the rules verge on existential threat.

“Today’s announcement is a real belly kick to Wyoming,” said Wyoming Mining Association (WMA) Executive Director Travis. “We are the nation’s leading coal producer. When the federal government unfairly forces our power plant customers to close, Wyoming’s coal production will drop. This means a loss of thousands of good paying jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to state and local governments.”

In addition to CO2, the suite includes stricter standards for mercury emissions, which are typically found at plants burning low-grade lignite coal, as well as new regulations on coal ash storage designed to prevent seepage and associated groundwater contamination.

All together, the rules are set to accelerate coal’s fall from prominence, which is in decline as a result of increased competition from renewables and natural gas. In 1990, coal produced close to half the nation's energy; today, it tenders around 16% of grid electricity. Now it’s poised to drop much more.

The rules will be challenged in court, experts say, but in the meantime, they’ve set off a scramble by state policymakers and utility executives who must weigh trade-offs between investing in expensive carbon capture technology or retiring fossil plants and finding new energy sources.

The announcement comes just weeks after Wyoming’s largest utility, Rocky Mountain Power, announced plans to increase its position in coal, extending the lifespans of units at Jim Bridger, Naughton and Wyodak facilities in Wyoming as well as two aging coal plants in Utah. The company may now have to go back to the drawing board.

The utility has yet to issue a statement, but representatives told the Star-Tribune they are currently reviewing the rules.

The rules did not come out of the blue, but they do speed up compliance timelines. To stay alive, the fossil industry will have to accelerate work on technologies that have not yet proven commercially viable and which may yet be cost prohibitive.

Anticipating federal emission crackdowns, Wyoming leaders years passed their own suite of carbon capture laws designed to keep fossil plants operating indefinitely in recent years. Estimates show the expense of installing a carbon capture system on a single coal-fired power unit could run between $500,000 and $1 billion, an outlay that will pass through to ratepayers.

The EPA’s rules also require new natural gas combustion turbines to be designed using modern technologies to reduce greenhouse gases.

The silver lining for Wyoming industry is that the administration has also made billions available for projects related to emission-capturing technology, some of which has already begun flowing to the state. If Wyoming is able to establish a viable model for carbon capture solutions, it could simultaneously keep its coal sector relevant while adding a new jobs-driving industry to its economic quiver.

Yet Wyoming leaders say the feds' timeline is unreasonable.

“The EPA has weaponized the fear of climate change into a crushing set of rules that will result in an unreliable electric grid, unaffordable electricity, and thousands of lost jobs. This administration has turned its back on the very industries and states that have made our country strong,” Governor Gordon said in a statement.