LegalPlanet: "EPA's Best Option: Co-Firing"
A writeup by a UC-Berkeley legal scholar discusses RFF's research on "cofiring" in the context of the Supreme Court's decision on West Virginia v EPA.
This leaves EPA with a powerful regulatory tool: a requirement that generators add natural gas or other lower-carbon fuels to their power mix.
Why is this important? A study by researchers at Resources for the Future showed that carbon emissions from coal plants could be cut in half in just a few years if generators were required to use 20% natural gas in the mix. That’s about 450 million tons of carbon per year. The reduction would take a little longer but cost less if plants were allowed to use emission trading as a form of compliance. The study didn’t model this, but other research suggests that use of biomass such as woodchips might also be effective.
