EPA STANDARDS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM POWER PLANTS: MANY QUESTIONS, SOME ANSWERS - President Obama's Climate Action Plan - page 53

N EW S OURCE P ERFORMANCE S TANDARDS (NSPS)
To control GHG emissions from stationary sources, EPA intends to use
Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, which requires the agency to set New
Source Performance Standards (NSPS). As noted, EPA proposed the first such
NSPS/GHG standard, for electric generating units, on April 13, 2012. 6 The
agency has also committed to the promulgation of NSPS for petroleum
refineries, although it is unclear when those standards will be proposed. 7
Under Section 111, the EPA Administrator is required to set standards for
categories of new (or substantially modified) major sources if, in his judgment,
they cause or contribute significantly to air pollution which may reasonably be
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. 8 Over the past four decades,
EPA Administrators have used this authority to set emission standards for
numerous sources of conventional pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide or
nitrogen oxides. The standards are to reflect the degree of emission limitation
achievable through application of the best ―adequately demonstrated‖ system
of emission reduction.
Table 1. U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2010, by Source Category
(in million tons of CO 2 equivalent)
Source 2010 Emissions % of Total U.S. GHG Emissions
Electricity Generation 2306 34%
- Coal-fired 1840 27%
- Natural gas fired 405 6%
- Oil-fired 31 <1%
Transportation 1834 27%
- Passenger cars 769 11%
- Light-duty trucks 320 5%
- Medium and heavy duty trucks 390 6%
- Aircraft a 144 2%
Industry b 1394 20%
Agriculture 495 7%
Commercial 382 6%
Residential 365 5%
Source: U.S. EPA, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-
2010, April 15, 2012.
a Excludes international use of aviation fuel, which would add another 1% (72 million
tons).
b Numerous industries, including iron and steel production, petroleum refining, cement
kilns, and others.