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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is delaying the release of carbon emissions rules for all power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan, and will publish them for new as well as existing plants at the same time mid-summer. The Agency also announced that they will begin drafting a "model rule" for states that do not submit individual plans to meet emissions reduction targets in the existing power plant regulations.
Under the proposed regulations for new sources, the EPA has required new coal power plants to include carbon-capture technology, which critics of the emissions rules say lack proof of efficacy on a large scale and have a high cost to implement. In 2011, the American Electric Power Company reported that including carbon-storing processes at a West Virginia plant would cost an estimated $668 million.
NAR submitted comments on this proposed regulation and is concerned that the proposed rules will have long-term, negative economic impacts on homeowners, businesses, and communities and will result in minimal carbon reductions.