Regulatory and environmental challenges for power plant conversions under the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
Over the last several years the electric utility grid has been transitioning away from coal-fired power plants to natural gas. Among the factors responsible for this shift are the low prices of natural gas resulting from the boom in shale gas production, the development of more efficient gas-fired generators, the advanced age of many coal-fired plants, and the increasing cost of mandated emissions controls and environmental compliance.1 The impact is already evident in the reduction of coal-fired generators across the United States. The Energy Information Administration ("EIA") estimates that 175 coal-fired generators in the United States, representing 8.5% of total coal generating capacity, will be retired between 2012 and 2016.2 By 2020, EIA estimates that roughly one-sixth of all coal plants currently operating will close.3