Dive Brief:
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued tough air emissions rules for certain coal-fired power plants in Wyoming, but the standards may not be as strict as proposed rules released in mid-2013.
- The rules, designed to reduce regional haze, will require new pollution control equipment at some power plants in Wyoming.
- Parties are still reviewing the new standards, but environmentalists said they are not as strict as last year's proposed rules.
Dive Insight:
This summer, PacifiCorp said that the EPA's initial proposal would force the utility to retire some of its coal units in Wyoming. Utilities in Arizona and New Mexico have developed plans, and in one case executed plans, to retire coal-fired units as compromise measures in meeting their regional haze requirements. Now that Wyoming's rules are out, PacifiCorp and other utilities may make similar proposals.