Constellation Energy strongly supports the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to limit carbon emissions from power plants, Joseph Dominguez, the power supplier’s president and CEO, said Monday.
However, the power sector is divided on the EPA’s proposal to limit carbon emissions from power plants, according to Dominguez. “I am disappointed to see many of my peers represented by the Edison Electric Institute and others working to block these very practical measures,” Dominguez said in a statement.
EEI and some of its members failed to offer “constructive solutions” and recognize the need to move the power sector toward a carbon-free future, he said.
But EEI isn’t “monolithic,” Dominguez told the Washington Post in an online interview Monday. “There are a great number of companies that are participating in energy, power production, utilities, that are strongly in favor of making quick progress in dealing with the climate crisis.”
EEI fundamentally disagrees with Dominguez’s assessment, according to Brian Reil, a spokesman for the investor-owned utility trade group.
“EEI has filed a series of extremely detailed and constructive white papers as part of this rulemaking, and we are working with our members to finalize extensive comments that are intended to help EPA develop final rules that support the ongoing clean energy transition, prioritize customer affordability, and are legally durable,” he said Monday.
The EPA in May proposed greenhouse gas emissions limits for coal-, gas- and oil-fired power plants, with initial requirements beginning in 2030 for coal-fired generators and 2032 for gas-fired units. The limits can be met by highly efficient operations, carbon capture and sequestration, co-firing natural gas for coal units, and with “green” hydrogen for gas generators, according to the proposal. Comments on the proposal are due Aug. 8.
Constellation, which says it is the largest U.S. producer of carbon-free electricity, owns 32,355 MW of generating capacity, including 20,895 MW of nuclear capacity, 8,807 MW of gas and oil, and 2,653 MW of wind, hydroelectric, and solar, according to the company’s most recent annual report. It plans to buy NRG Energy’s 1,164-MW stake in a Texas nuclear plant.
The Baltimore-based company aims for its power plant fleet to be 95% carbon-free by 2030 and 100% carbon-free by 2040.
Tools coming to meet EPA proposal
Constellation is confident the EPA is “on the right path” because the company has been developing technology that will allow existing gas-fired power plants to comply with the proposed rules, Dominguez said.
Pointing to how some generators could meet the EPA’s proposed rules, Dominguez said Constellation set a record this year by blending close to 40% hydrogen with natural gas at a 15-year-old power plant in Alabama with only minor modifications.
“That would easily meet the new EPA requirements that are set [to begin] in ‘32,” he said. “So we're confident we're going to be able to do that.”
Also, Constellation is an investor in NET Power, a company that has developed technology to capture nearly all carbon emissions while producing power from gas, according to Dominguez.
“Green” hydrogen could play a key role in the energy transition by using excess emissions-free power in the spring and fall when electricity demand is subdued to create the fuel and then storing it for use when power demand is high, Dominguez said.
Constellation supports allowing existing emissions-free resources to claim federal tax credits if they produce hydrogen, while groups such as the Sierra Club contend the tax credits should only go to new generating resources, according to Dominguez.
“We think that'll take way too long to make the amount of hydrogen needed and doesn't fundamentally address the oversupply problem … in the fall and in the spring,” he said.
Dominguez also expects advanced nuclear reactors will play a key role in the energy transition.
“You can put your head on the pillow tonight and be absolutely assured that we will develop the technology,” he said. “Unlike other technologies that we’re kind of gambling on – sequestration, other things that may or may not work at scale – we've been doing this with nuclear for over 50 years.”
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year, was a “transformative event” that will likely be supported by future administrations, regardless of their party, according to Dominguez.
“The vast majority of people understand the severity of the [climate] problem we're dealing with,” he said. “I'm very confident that Republican leaders in Congress aren't going to interrupt the progress that we've made … With each passing day, and certainly each passing year, we recognize that this isn't something we can run and hide from.”
