Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Clean Air Act limits on CO2 emissions from new power plants

Is due to be (re)issued tomorrow. The Washington Post and New York Times have advance stories on this, and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will give details in a speech at the National Press Club at 9am.

These rules, which will apply only to new power plants, provide limits that natural gas plants can meet easily. This means they will be largely theoretical for the time being, as there are no pending applications for new coal plants in the US at the moment. However, it will be of huge symbolic importance to both sides--environmentalists who have been waiting for years for the US to take any substantive action on global warming, and Republicans and industry who maintain that President Obama is waging a "War on Coal."

The next step for the rules on new power plants is a 60-day public comment period. At least for now, the EPA is hoping to issue a final rule by the end of 2014. It also hopes to issue a proposed rulemaking for CO2 emissions from existing power plants in 2014.