EPA imposes new power plant rules
Friday, July 08, 2011
EPA imposes new power plant rules
By: Juliet Eilperin and Darryl Fears, Washington
Post
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it
finalized rules that compel 28
states and the District to curb air pollution that travels
across states by wind and weather, the first in a series of federal
restrictions aimed at improving the air Americans breathe.
The Cross State Air
Pollution Rule, which replaces a Bush-era regulation thrown out
by federal courts in 2008, targets coal-fired power plants mainly
in the eastern United States. The measure, along with a proposal
aimed at cutting summertime smog in the Midwest, is projected to
cost the utility industry about $2.4 billion in
pollution-control upgrades over several years.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Thursday that the rule is
"another long overdue step to protect the air we breathe and that
our children breathe."
She predicted that it will prevent as many as 34,000 premature
deaths annually and generate $280 billion in benefits "that
far outweigh the cost of complying with the rule."
Jackson said the rule is projected to result in 1.8 million
fewer sick days annually and allow people who suffer from
respiratory ailments related to breathing pollution to spend more
time outdoors in summer.
A federal judge vacated the George W. Bush administration's
Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) for several reasons, questioning
in part whether the emissions trading system it established would
do enough to bring all states into compliance with federal
air-quality standards.
Frank O'Donnell, who directs the advocacy group Clean Air Watch,
said the new measures are "a good first step in cleaning up the
air" but are less significant than upcoming guidelines for
acceptable smog and soot levels across the country.
Utilities in several states, including Virginia and Maryland,
have already begun to cut the nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide
emissions linked to both soot and smog-forming ozone. The EPA
estimates that the power sector has spent $1.6 billion to install
pollution controls that helped bring emissions in line with the
Bush measure.
"The utilities are basically already meeting this," said Michael
Dowd, who directs the air quality division at Virginia's Department
of Environmental Quality. He added that while the Cross State
measure was helpful because it "locks into place" slightly stricter
standards than CAIR, "it's probably not going to bring any
substantial real reductions from what we're seeing now."
Air pollution is carried downwind from one state to another.
Maryland, for example, is "kind of at the wrong end of the
tailpipe" when it comes to transported pollutants such as sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said Kathy Kinsey, deputy secretary of
Maryland's Department of the Environment.
"We get a lot of ozone pollution from upwind states," she said.
"This is a very important rule for us." Maryland is concerned that
the rule is not stringent enough to lower ozone pollution
significantly that drifts in from states such as Pennsylvania and
Ohio, Kinsey said.
James L. Connaughton, who was chairman of the Council on
Environmental Quality under George W. Bush and is now an executive
vice president at Constellation Energy, said Constellation has
spent $1 billion on pollution control upgrades at facilities
such as Maryland's Brandon Shores power plant.
"We just went ahead and did it," Connaughton said, adding that
it was unfortunate the court ruled that the Bush proposal could not
go into effect. "We lost a couple of years in air quality
improvement and investment, but we're now back on track."
Some utility officials said the new rules and others that the
Obama administration plans to enact in the coming months could
force the retirement of several coal plants. That, in turn, will
raise electricity costs for consumers, said American Electric Power
spokesman Pat Hemlepp.
The rule will probably have its biggest impact on states such as
Texas, which has challenged the idea of stricter controls on
coal-fired power plants. It "will adversely affect thousands of
Texas jobs creators and electricity consumers without fair notice
and the opportunity to be heard," said Sen. John Cornyn
(R-Tex.).
S. William Becker, executive director of the National
Association of Clean Air Agencies, said the new regulations impose
tighter restrictions than did the Bush rules on sulfur dioxide
emissions that create fine particles known as soot. But they
resemble the former rules, he said, in that they are using an
outdated smog standard that the EPA is expected to tighten later
this month.
Some lawmakers are already lobbying to weaken the new smog
rules. Sens. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) are
circulating a letter among their colleagues that urges Jackson to
withdraw the rules because the senators have "significant concerns"
about their economic impact.