EPA notes significant emissions decline in power plant, industrial sectors

November 18th, 2016 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

Power plant emissions are a major area of concern for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration, as the Clean Power Plan demonstrates. Following the initial implementation of the plan's environmental regulations, conflict over the issue between government agencies and individual states and energy providers has reached an exceptionally contentious level, with a federal legal challenge to the plan that could take years to resolve. Despite the current situation and major differences in opinion in how the EPA should regulate power plant emissions, there's unequivocally good news for all stakeholders involved in heavy industry and power plants. Emissions have dropped noticeably in those sectors as compared to previous years.

Significant declines seen in the short and long terms
According to information gathered by the EPA and shared by Utility Dive, power plant emissions dropped 6.2 percent in 2015 as compared to the previous year. This is a notable decline, although comparisons between single years can be greatly influenced by a number of factors that make the numbers mean less in the long term. However, the decline is also noticeable when the 2015 numbers are compared to those from years further in the past. Specifically, Utility Dive noted an 11.3 percent decline in total power plant carbon dioxide emissions since 2011. This finding across a longer period gives more weight to the idea that power plants have reduced emissions in a noticeable and meaningful way.

Similarly, industrial emissions of greenhouse gases are also on the decline. Utility Dive reported industrial and waste facility output dropped almost 4.9 percent as compared to 2014 and 8.2 percent in terms of the 2011 levels. FuelFix, an energy industry blog from The Houston Chronicle, said the EPA viewed these developments positively and believes power plants and heavy industry are moving in the right direction. The news isn't all uniformly positive, however, as statistics from oil and gas facilities show. While this subset of the energy industry saw a 2 percent year-over-year drop from 2014, emissions increased 4 percent from the levels seen in 2011. That uptick is in large part due to the boom seen in the industry since the early 2010s.

With utilities and heavy industry taking steps to reduce environmental impact on their own, it remains to be seen how the eventual fate of the Clean Power Plan will impact those efforts should it remain in effect.