New Policy Limits from the fed means wishful thinking about the available solutions.
This week the EPA was backed by new policies and standards aiming to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants throughout the country. As with any government policy, there is a fair bit of fine print but the top-level points are what you might expect them to be:
- Coal plants must reduce 90% of their greenhouse emissions by 2039
- Stricter limits on mercury emissions
- New restrictions on coal ash seepage
- Limitations on wastewater discharge
On the surface, we’re looking at a lot of red-tape for a continually decreasing amount of energy production. Less than 20% of our power comes from coal plants, and that’s dropping every year. Only 20% of today’s energy is coming from renewables, and it has a long way to go before it can effectively replace coal, much less the +60% of energy that comes from natural gas and nuclear.
Motus Group has helped numerous facilities get within compliance standards and will continue to do so as the new mercury standards roll out (a standard just about every coal plant is already well within). The dream solution is the application of carbon capture tech. While carbon capture has a few use cases, it needs to be developed and refined significantly to bring down the technology and application costs. If these costs don’t drop, and alternative sources can’t ramp up (and stay up!), then we’ll likely see an extension of the compliance deadlines. We are all in the business of delivering reliable and consistent energy sources. Our customers depend on it, the municipalities we serve depend on it, and even our national security partly depends on our ability to keep the lights on.
Regardless of what new regulations and policies come our way, Motus Group will always provide power producers and industrial sites the equipment they need to stay compliant. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we know that facilities that run cleaner also run at a lower cost for longer. We are here to help your production stay online with any number of tools, replacement parts, upgrades, retrofits, and more. Don’t hesitate to reach out, we’re here to help.