Constellation to File Comments Offering Support for New EPA Guidelines to Reduce Carbon Emissions From Power Plants

Company says new guidelines reflect investments many power generators are already making and urges industry peers to reject efforts to block the measure

August 07, 2023 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Constellation (Nasdaq: CEG), the nation’s largest producer of carbon-free energy and the third largest energy producer overall, will file comments with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tomorrow offering strong support for the agency’s recently proposed guidelines for reducing carbon emissions from fossil power plants. In the comments, Constellation offers suggestions to further improve the guidelines and presents a contrary view to major electric producers who have rejected EPA’s efforts to address the industry’s emissions.

“Anyone who has lived through this record-shattering summer can plainly see that we need to move faster to address the climate crisis, and these guidelines offer a roadmap for the electric industry to step up its efforts,” said Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation. “Far from being too restrictive, the guidelines offer flexibility and build on technology and processes that the industry is already putting in use to great effect today. I am disappointed to see many of my peers represented by the Edison Electric Institute and others working to block these very practical measures rather than offering constructive solutions and recognizing the imperative of moving our industry toward a carbon-free future, as we inevitably must do.”

>> Additional Reading: Constellation Awards $500,000 to Clean Energy, Community-based Student Projects Through Energy to Educate Program

In its proposal, EPA acknowledges that fossil generation will be required for many years to come in order to maintain grid reliability, and it offers flexible solutions to gradually lower emissions.

The guidelines also reflect measures many energy companies – including Constellation – have already announced they will take in response to market factors and to advance their own sustainability and climate goals. For example, the proposal leans on technologies such as clean hydrogen blending and carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS, to meet the new standards. Constellation has already invested in these technologies to make natural gas generation cleaner.

In May, the company set an industry record for blending hydrogen with natural gas at the Hillabee Generating Station in Alabama. Our testing at Hillabee showed that with minimal modifications, an existing gas plant can safely operate on a blend of nearly 40 percent clean hydrogen, demonstrating that this technology can be used today to meaningfully reduce emissions.

In addition, the company is a strategic investor in NET Power Inc, which employs a technology capable of capturing nearly 100 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas generation. Numerous other major power producers have announced similar investments, showing how the industry is capable of meeting the EPA’s proposed timeline using existing technology.

About Constellation

A Fortune 200 company headquartered in Baltimore, Constellation Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: CEG) is the nation’s largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy and a leading supplier of energy products and services to businesses, homes, community aggregations and public sector customers across the continental United States, including three fourths of Fortune 100 companies. With annual output that is nearly 90% carbon-free, our hydro, wind and solar facilities paired with the nation’s largest nuclear fleet have the generating capacity to power the equivalent of 15 million homes, providing about 10% of the nation’s clean energy. We are further accelerating the nation’s transition to a carbon-free future by helping our customers reach their sustainability goals, setting our own ambitious goal of achieving 100% carbon-free generation by 2040, and by investing in promising emerging technologies to eliminate carbon emissions across all sectors of the economy.