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Clean Power Plan Memo

882 Words4 Pages

Sean Rapp
BADM 2001W-10
Memo

To: Mr. John Smith, VP of Sales
From: Mr. Sean Rapp, Assistant to the VP of Sales
Date: 28 January 2016
Subject: Summary of ‘Clean Power Plan’

Mr. Smith, I am writing to inform you of the proposed federal plan to implement the greenhouse gas emission guidelines for current fossil fuel fired electric generating power plants under the Clean Air Act. This federal plan was proposed in June 2014 and finalized on 3 August 2015 under the name ‘Carbon Pollution Emissions Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units’ herein after referred to as the ‘Clean Power Plan’. With our company having a substantial stake in the current and future operations of the energy industry, it is absolutely …show more content…

Section 111(d) lays out the process through which Environmental Protection Agency will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing Electric Generating Units (also known as ‘power plants’) which account for 40 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., and one out of every 15 tons of carbon dioxide emitted anywhere in the world. Regulation of one third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., from existing fossil power plants) will take place through a portion of the Clean Air Act that is seldom used. Section 111(d) only applies to pollutants (like greenhouse gases) not regulated elsewhere in the law. Most air pollutants released by power production – including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants like mercury –are specifically covered by further parts of the Clean Air Act. So far, Section 111(d) has only been used to regulate emissions for five categories of existing causes of emissions and never for a contaminant that is so pervasive as carbon dioxide in the U.S. and globally. Therefore this regulation will be treading into unexplored territory for the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as for the regulated industry and the states. Specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing approaches in …show more content…

In the short term, we can expect an increase in the usage of natural-gas powered plants requiring conversion of coal powered plants to the cleaner natural gas fueled plants. These plant conversions will lead to an increase in the consumption of natural gas itself, of which the United States has a significant market share. In the long term, effects include: increased spending in research and development of sustainable clean energy projects, construction of renewable energy power plants, a marked increase in renewable energy sector jobs, and possible unknown byproducts from technological breakthroughs in this sector (i.e. large scale growth in the energy storage segment from advanced battery

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