The environment editor of the Wall Street Journal sat down with the CEOs of Rio Tinto and American Electric Power Co. in March for a discussion about the predicted demise of coal power. When asked about predictions that a third of the country’s coal fleet will be retired in the coming years, AEP CEO Michael Morris said the forecast “has everything to do with the approach that the EPA may or may not take.”
A slew of notable EPA rulemakings affecting coal-fired power plants are on the horizon. Chris Amandes, a partner at Vinson & Elkins, estimates around eight rules are currently in the pipeline that will require major adaptations from coal-fired power plants. “All these rules coming together more or less at the same time, with respect to investment horizon for a coal plant or the time required to [make] some of these improvements, means they’re all going to hit the industry over a six- to eight-year period,” he says. “It really implicates our energy policy on a national level.”
