The emissions are pretty much all coming from coal and natural gas being burned at power plants. When finalized, these technology standards are expected to avoid 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by the year 2042. That's equivalent to the annual emissions of 137 million cars in passenger vehicles. But currently there are no commercial-scale carbon capture operations on power plants.
The EPA has just announced new rules for power plants to clean up their act. But to get to those lower limits, companies might have to switch to two largely untested technologies in the power sector: hydrogen production and carbon capture.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Amanda Lewellyn, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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