Clean Power Plan

• Environmental regulations have a significant impact on the green energy market in major countries and regions.
• The directive sets goals for the share of renewables in the energy mix, driving significant investments in wind, solar, biomass, and other green energy sources.
• Air Pollution Control Measures: Stringent regulations to combat air pollution have indirectly bolstered the green energy market by prioritizing cleaner sources of energy over coal.
• The market for solar energy in the green energy market is expected to continue its upward trajectory, driven by evolving technological advancements, rise in energy demands, and the pursuit of more sustainable practices within the sector.

• On May 11, 2023, the Biden administration proposed new regulations to curb carbon pollution from existing power plants.
• The new rules replace the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which was proposed in 2015 but ran into multiple legal challenges and never took effect.
• Nonetheless, in a high-profile 2022 ruling, West Virginia v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Obama administration’s approach exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate power plant carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.

1. How has the Biden administration tailored these regulations in response to the West Virginia v. EPA ruling?

• The scent of West Virginia v. EPA is all over the new proposed rules.
• The new proposed regulations attempt to thread the needle between meeting the Biden administration’s climate commitments and avoiding another gutting in court.
• The EPA proposes to use CCS to reduce emissions from large coal plants with long life expectancies.

2. Do the draft rules indicate that EPA is responding to energy industry critiques of the Clean Power Plan?

• The proposal takes a tiered and staggered approach to which power plants will be regulated, how stringently, and by when.
• First, the EPA goes out of its way to accommodate coal plants that are already scheduled to close or anticipate shutting down in the next couple of decades.
• Second, the rule’s reliance on carbon capture and storage, in my view, ought to be music to fossil fuel companies’ ears.

3. Do you see legal vulnerabilities in the proposed new rules?

• CCS is an emerging technology that’s not yet widely used, in part because it is so expensive.
• Rather, they will be required to reduce their emissions to a level that could be achieved using CCS.
• This is not a topic that the EPA wants to revisit with the Supreme Court.

4. How do these regulations conform with Biden’s focus on environmental justice?

• And they disproportionately harm the health of nearby low-income communities and communities of color.
• Carbon capture and storage doesn’t reduce these pollutants at any significant scale, nor does it prevent public health, environmental and cultural damage caused by fossil fuel extraction projects.

• OPG is developing and constructing the 300-megawatt SMR next to OPG's existing 3,500-megawatt Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington, Ontario.
• SMRs can provide zero-carbon baseload power across all regions and are crucial to decarbonizing the electricity sector and broader economy.
• The CIB's $970 million investment will help OPG construct Canada's first small modular reactor.
• Through its Clean Power priority sector, the CIB has committed $5 billion towards clean power, renewables, district energy, storage, interties, and transmission.

• The upcoming release includes Vectorworks Architect, Landmark, Spotlight and Fundamentals, along with 2023 versions of ConnectCAD, Braceworks and Vision.
• Vectorworks remains the unrivaled choice for collaboration, and Vectorworks 2023 will deliver improved ways to work with others.
• Everyday performance improvements that get you started, speed up tasks and are less disruptive highlight a designer's first experience with Vectorworks 2023.
• To receive the latest updates on the release of Vectorworks 2023, visit vectorworks.net in the coming weeks and follow @Vectorworks.