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Most of West Virginia’s electric power generation emissions are from coal-fired plants, which contribute 95% of electric power generation emissions. That heightens the potential health benefits in the Mountain State from the newly finalized EPA rules, which are:

• A final rule for existing coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants that would ensure that all coal-fired plants that plan to run in the long-term and all new baseload gas-fired plants control 90% of their carbon pollution
• A final rule strengthening and updating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants, tightening the emissions standard for toxic metals by 67% and finalizing a 70% reduction in the emissions standard for mercury from existing sources fired by lignite, a low-grade coal
• A final rule to reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from coal-fired power plants by more than 660 million pounds per year
• A final rule that will require the safe management of coal ash that is placed in areas that were unregulated at the federal level until now, including at previously used disposal areas that may leak and contaminate groundwater

“The stronger protections [EPA] Administrator [Michael] Regan is announcing today will save lives,� American Lung Association president and CEO Harold Wimmer said during an EPA-hosted announcement of the rules at Howard University.

W.Va. leaders aim to block EPA

But West Virginia leaders who have long been wary of EPA climate action condemned the rulemaking as federal overreach, rejecting the agency’s assurance the new standards won’t threaten electric reliability.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey pledged the state would challenge EPA rulemaking Thursday, nearly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a West Virginia-led coalition of 18 Republican-controlled states in finding the EPA doesn’t have the authority to shift the nation’s power generation to lower-emitting sources than coal.

“They’ll lose in court,� Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said during a news conference blasting the EPA’s new rules as technologically unfeasible Thursday afternoon. “The president and his administration will lose. [The] EPA’s going to lose in court.�

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she intends to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to overturn the rules.

If a joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule cannot go into or continue in effect.

Like Manchin, Capito claimed the new rules threaten energy reliability and access.

West Virginia Coal Association president and CEO Chris Hamilton called the EPA’s standards “economic suicide� that will lead to more expensive power bills and weaken the electric grid.

But West Virginia has faced skyrocketing power bills and increases in electric power outages while relying far more on coal-fired electric generation than any other state in recent years, prompting climate proponents to urge the state to transition its power supply sources and embrace the energy transition.

West Virginia environmental advocates hailed the rules Thursday.

“This is a momentous day for public health in communities nationwide, especially here in West Virginia,� West Virginia Environmental Council vice president Quenton King said in an email. “The final rules announced by the EPA today will clean up our grid, one of the dirtiest in the nation. Lives will be saved, cancers avoided, and West Virginians will breathe cleaner air and be more confident that hazardous pollutants don’t pollute their water.�

“The bottom line is that this rule will save lives in West Virginia,� Jim Kotcon, chairman of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, said in an email. “Furthermore, denying the reality of climate change will end up costing much more than solving the problem.�

EPA projects billions in climate and health benefits

A study released last week conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, a climate research nonprofit, found the world economy is already committed to an income reduction of 19% until 2050 due to climate change — damages six times larger than the mitigation costs needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees.

“Coal barons who invested billions in coal reserves made a bad bet, and politicians who oppose this rule appear to be more beholden to out-of-state coal companies than to the citizens who elect them,� Kotcon said.

The EPA’s final Clean Air Act standards limit how much carbon pollution covered sources may emit.

The agency projects up to $370 billion in climate and public health net benefits over the next two decades from the new rule, including a reduction of 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon pollution overall through 2047. That’s equivalent to preventing the annual emissions of 328 million gasoline cars.

“Despite what you will hear, and what they will say, we can do it all while ensuring the power sector can provide affordable, reliable electricity to consumers for the long term,� Regan said.

Existing coal-fired units that are intended to operate after Jan. 1, 2039, will have a numeric emission rate limit based on application of carbon capture and storage with 90% capture, which they must meet by 2032. Units that have committed to cease operations by Jan. 1, 2039, will have a numeric emission rate limit based on 40% natural gas co-firing that they must meet by 2030.

FirstEnergy and American Electric Power-controlled coal-fired power plants in West Virginia have been slated as meeting the ends of their useful lives between 2035 and 2040. Spokespeople for FirstEnergy and AEP subsidiary Appalachian Power said Thursday that they are reviewing the EPA rules to see how they may affect power plant operations and future investment plans.