The Biden administration’s upcoming rule to slash climate pollution from power plants may not be as comprehensive as advocates had hoped. About 1,000 natural gas plants in largely poor, Black and Latino neighborhoods could be excluded from the historic pollution limits that EPA is expected to propose next week, Jean Chemnick writes. EPA spokesperson Khanya Brann told Jean the agency wouldn’t comment because the rule is under review and “subject to change.” But four people briefed by the agency, who were granted anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, said the new proposal would not hold so-called peaker plants to the same strict limits as other power plants. Peaker plants don’t operate all the time. They’re used to provide backup electricity when demand is high, such as during winter mornings when people turn up the heat or summer afternoons when air conditioning is a must. They can run as often as a few hours a day to as little as a few hours per year. And they tend to be dirtier than regular power plants. That means it could be especially expensive to retrofit these plants with equipment to capture their carbon pollution, as EPA’s new rule could effectively compel other plants to do. That cost might be so onerous it forces peaker plants to retire — threatening the grid’s reliability during extreme demand and making it harder to defend the rule in court. On the other hand, letting peaker plants continue to emit carbon dioxide and toxic air pollutants could have a disproportionate impact on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Peaker plants are often located in dense urban areas where the need for power is greatest. Biden’s split screen: President Joe Biden has pledged to address the inequitable distribution of environmental pollution, which has led to grave health disparities between Black and white Americans. Less than two weeks ago, he made a pre-Earth Day announcement in the Rose Garden regarding measures to tighten environmental reviews of new projects in already-overburdened communities. Black residents are typically exposed to upward of 60 percent more pollution than they produce, including contaminants that can cause cardiovascular and respiratory ailments. Black Americans, for example, are 30 percent more likely than white people to have asthma and three times more likely to die from asthma-related causes. Some environmentalists also worry that exempting peaker plants from EPA’s strict pollution standards might compel energy companies to turn their regular power plants into peaker plants to avoid expensive investments in slashing planet-warming emissions.
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