Dive Brief:

• The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has proposed restrictions on a new gas plant that would make it among the most efficient in the nation, a move the agency's director said could "set the bar" higher for other new plants, the Augusta Free Press reports. 
• Dominion last year proposed constructing a combined-cycle 1,588-MW plant that would straddle the Greensville/Brunswick County line, fueled by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In March, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a certificate of necessity for the project.
• The original permit proposed a carbon dioxide emissions limit of 903 pounds per MWh, but the revised restrictions would limit that to 813 pounds/MWh.

Dive Insight:

The new emissions limits for Greensville Power Station must be approved by the state's Air Pollution Control Board before they are final, but environmentalists are hailing the DEQ's recommendations and the director of the agency's air division believes it could set a new standard for proposed plants.

“We think the numbers we will present to the (Air Pollution Control) Board will be lower than any permit that has been built to date in the country for a natural gas combined cycle unit,” DEQ's Mike Dowd told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I can’t say the emissions from any one plant will have substantial effect on climate change, but it sets the bar, hopefully, for standards around the country.”

Environmental groups hailed the decision, even as some remained opposed to the plant itself. And they called for the same restrictions, including use of "best available technology," to be applied to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline which would supply the plant.

“The impacts of this decision could ripple through the energy sector,” Appalachian Mountain Advocates attorney Evan Johns said. “By strengthening efficiency requirements, this permit will serve as the new benchmark against which all similar Clean Air Act permits must be measured.”

The recommendations did not adopt all of clean energy advocates' suggestions. In a response to comments filed, DEQ said it would not force the plant to adopt a solar energy component. "The Department has determined that requiring solar generation, either in its entirety or as a supplemental fuel source, constitutes redefinition of the Greensville facility," the agency wrote.

Dominion would like to begin construction on the $1.3 billion plant later this year. The facility, which would sit on a 55-acre site, could power 400,000 homes and was designed to also have low water usage to minimize the impact to rivers and streams.

Dominion's $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline hit a snag last year when regulators directed the company to consider new routes. But Dominion says it still expects to complete the pipeline in late 2018.