New Environmental Protection Agency proposes rule to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. You can find the proposed rule here, if you want to read all 250+ pages. Or you can find a fact sheet here.
If this rule is adopted, power plants that use any type of fossil fuel, right now biomass fuels are exempted, will have to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. One of the most promising ways of doing this is to take a large portion of the exhaust from a plant and pump it (an acknowledged poison) into underground geological regions—otherwise known as sequestration.
Currently, sequestration is under trial at the large pilot plant stage. It is not in commercial operation. Once the ins-and-outs of sequestration are in place, current estimates indicate that that most plants would have to produce 2-3 times more energy (and hence burn much more fuel) to power the sequestration process. This will dramatically increase the cost of electricity.
For more information about the proposed rule and the likelihood of its adoption, please see the article here.
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