PING
Biden's Department of Energy refused to allow Texas' Natural Gas and Coal fired powerplants to operate at 100% capacity unless they charged $1,500/MWh (normal costs are $60/MWh.).
More at # 12.
(People died; will anyone be charged with murder?)
You are wrong I am in the energy industry. Gas particularly. The EPA sets the limits for air pollution measured in grams per kWh of production. They DO NOT set the output of the plants not a single one. How the plants choose to meet the federally established limits is up to them. These limits are not currently CO2 limits they are limits as per the clean Air and water acts of NOx, SOx, mercury, lead, arsenic and 2.5 particulates. For gas turbines the hotter and more fuel rich the combustion the more NOx emissions are created it is a function of combustion temperature. Obviously higher temps for a given mass of air flow equal more power. Plant operators have three choices to meet the federally established limits one is to install post combustion SCR catalysts which allow for as high a temperature the HP turbines can stand and the highest power output. Choice two is run fuel lean or O2 lean with EGR this lowers the O2 content of the combustion chamber and this lowers the NOx emissions considerably but costs raw power output. The third choice is to retrofit low NOx combustors that use staged combustion such as Georgia Tech’s design. The SCR and retrofits are expensive so most operators choose to run fuel or O2 lean which costs 20% or so of the raw thermal limit of the turbines. It is not “derating” since the emissions limits set the max power within those limits that all gas plants must meet to be legal to run. What Abbot asked for was a waiver to the emissions limits so the turbines could be run right up to their melting points and drastically increase toxic emissions. NOx is the prime cause of smog and acid rain and in ppm levels causes respiratory distress syndrome when exposed for any length of time more than a few minutes. Coal plants and diesels also have emissions limits that the operator chooses how to meet them either with control technologies such as catalysts , scrubbers or particulates filters. Again the EPA does not set max power they set max emissions per kWh of power how those limits are met is an economic calculation that the operator chooses their compliance method.