The White House is rolling out new steps to boost renewable energy and transmission, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed to deny requests for more time to close unlined coal ash impoundments at three coal-fired power plants in the country.
On Jan. 12, seven federal agencies shared plans to further President Joe Biden's climate goals, which include eliminating emissions from the power sector and boosting renewable energy production from federal lands and waters.
As part of the new efforts, the U.S. Interior Department will hold its largest-ever lease sale for offshore wind power in February. The auction will cover more than 480,000 acres in the New York Bight off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and is expected to result in projects capable of generating up to 7 GW of wind power, enough to power 2 million homes.
The efforts will support the administration's target to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and will help fulfill a congressional mandate to permit 25 GW of renewable energy on public lands by 2025.
Meanwhile, the EPA proposed to deny a request by Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp. to continue receiving coal ash and non-coal combustion residuals waste at two impoundment facilities at the 1,198-MW Clifty Creek plant in Jefferson County, Ind. The plant operator had asked for permission to close the two facilities on Dec. 5, 2022, and April 25, 2023, respectively, which would be beyond the agency's April 2021 deadline for most of the country's approximately 500 unlined coal ash surface impoundments to stop receiving waste and begin closure.
The EPA said the Clifty Creek plant had failed to show that no off-site capacity was available for one of the plant's waste streams. The agency also said Indiana-Kentucky Electric failed to meet requirements for groundwater monitoring and corrective action, build a concrete settling tank to obtain alternative capacity and prepare adequate closure plans for the two impoundment areas.
Separately, the EPA proposed to deny similar requests seeking additional time to close coal ash facilities at the 2,680-MW Gen J M Gavin plant in Ohio and the 734-MW Ottumwa generating station in Iowa. The EPA also deemed four other extension applications incomplete and another ineligible.
The agency also notified several facilities of potential concerns over compliance with EPA rules for coal combustion residuals and announced plans for "future regulatory actions to ensure coal ash impoundments meet strong environmental and safety standards."
"For too long, communities already disproportionately impacted by high levels of pollution have been burdened by improper coal ash disposal," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release. "Today's actions will help us protect communities and hold facilities accountable."
In addition, the EPA moved to reject a Wyoming air pollution plan that would have allowed two units at the 2,123-MW Jim Bridger coal-fired power plant to avoid the installation of additional pollution controls under the haze program. The goal of the program is to curb air pollution clouding visibility in the nation's national parks and wilderness areas.
In other news, Florida municipal utility JEA announced the retirement of the 860-MW Unit 4 at the Scherer coal-fired power plant in Georgia, which had been the largest operating coal plant in the U.S.
The four-unit Scherer plant is operated by Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power Co. and Unit 3 is targeted for retirement by 2028. About half the plant's coal supply in 2021 came from Eagle Specialty Materials LLC's Eagle Butte Mine in Campbell County, Wyo., according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.
Upcoming coal event:
International Conference on Coal Geology, Coal Exploration and Data Collection: The 2022 conference will be held Jan. 28-29 in New York.
