The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule this week that would repeal the Biden-Harris administration’s 2024 emissions and pollution standards impacting power plants. [emphasis, links added]
The proposed rule is open for public comment, and agency Administrator Lee Zeldin encouraged interested organizations and individuals to engage in the process.
He stressed that if finalized, the rule would only remove new standards that the previous administration put in place.
In other words, Zeldin explained, power plants in operation today would still be governed by pre-2024 regulations, and so they couldn’t emit any more pollutants than they do today. He appeared to anticipate that, despite this point, the media would mispresent the rule as an end to pollution standards.
“I apologize if I just killed some of the pre-written headlines,” he said Wednesday in announcing the proposed rule.
While many media outlets raised the alarm over the proposed repeal, the Associated Press’s reporting appeared to suggest that the proposed rule denied the existence of climate change altogether.
‘Regulate Them Out Of Existence’
One Biden-era rule that the EPA is targeting for repeal requires that coal-fired power plants operating beyond 2032 must be fitted with carbon capture technology by 2032.
Most new natural gas-fired power plants would have to be fitted with the technology by 2032. The other proposal would repeal stringent limits on mercury and other pollutants emitted primarily from coal plants.
Because carbon capture is expensive and ineffective, experts have argued that the power plant rule would increase retirements of coal plants and make construction of new natural-gas-fired power plants prohibitively expensive, which would leave the U.S. power grid reliant on intermittent wind and solar.
This would, they argue, increase energy costs and destabilize the nation’s grid.
In the press conference announcing the rule, Zeldin argued that the Trump administration seeks to balance protecting the environment with growing the economy.
“Especially over the course of the last couple of years, in 2023 and 2024, rules were enacted seeking to suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment, seeking to make all sorts of industries, including coal and more, disappear — regulate them out of existence,” Zeldin said.
‘Doesn’t Contribute’ Becomes ‘Doesn’t Impact Climate’
The Associated Press moved a story after the press conference under the headline, “EPA says power plant carbon emissions aren’t dangerous. We asked 30 scientists: Here’s what they say.”
The first paragraph clarifies what the proposed rule says, which is that “emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution.’’
The article states that the Associated Press climate reporter Seth Borenstein asked “30 different scientists in climate, health, and economics about the scientific reality behind the proposal.”
Borenstein did not provide a list of the 30 scientists whom he questioned, so it’s not clear what their backgrounds are or with which groups they’re associated.
The article quotes, among others, climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, equating the language of the proposal to “saying that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.”
Hausfather then explains that the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures is well established in the scientific community.
Carbon dioxide removal is an important part of getting to net-zero and stopping the world from warming. But it cannot be used as an alternative to deep emissions reductions.
Graphs like this from @1PointFiveCCUS are deeply problematic and oversell the role of CDR. pic.twitter.com/Rut7QsgCOs
— Zeke Hausfather (@hausfath) June 14, 2022
“It is utterly nonsensical to say that carbon emissions from power plants do not contribute significantly to climate change,” Hausfather told the Associated Press.
The rule doesn’t in any way dispute that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions impact the climate. It appears Hausfather was under the impression that the proposal disputes this.
It’s not clear whether Borenstein’s questions gave this impression, or whether Hausfather was responding according to his understanding of the rule.
Breathing Carbon Dioxide Compared To Taking Arsenic
However, other scientists Borenstein quotes also appear to have this same misunderstanding, including celebrity climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann.
“It’s about as valid as saying that arsenic is not a dangerous substance to consume,” Mann told the outlet.
How emitting CO2, which stimulates plant growth and that people breathe every day, is comparable to taking arsenic, Mann doesn’t explain.
Mann and his lawyers were recently sanctioned by a D.C. court. Mann had filed a defamation suit against two bloggers, for which he was originally awarded $1 million.
A judge reduced the award and accused Mann and his lawyers of making false statements regarding grant losses that Mann claimed resulted from the defamatory statements. Mann is appealing the decision.
Just the News reached out to the Associated Press corporate communications division to get clarification on where the misunderstanding of the proposal’s language arose.
“Thanks for checking. We stand by the reporting,” Patrick Maks, director of media relations and corporate communications for the Associated Press, said.
Just the News also reached out to Hausfather through Berkeley Earth, where he’s a climate science contributor, but didn’t receive a response.
In 2022, the Associated Press received $8 million from net-zero political advocacy groups, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The funding went directly in support of the Associated Press’s climate and energy coverage. The outlet says that the funding has no impact on its coverage and that it retains full editorial control.
The Ravenswood natural gas/oil power plant in Queens, New York. Photo by Taraqur Rahman on Unsplash.
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Like Hollywood nit-wit DiCaprio saying those who reject Global Warming/Climate Change and Rejecting the Truth and coming from someone who’s whole career is playing a big game of Lets Pretend for Cash