State Seeks to Slash Mercury Emissions With New Rules

Aug 16 - The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania

The state Department of Environmental Protection is moving forward with plans to rein in mercury emissions, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants that is most dangerous to pregnant women and fetuses.

Today, DEP will ask the Environmental Quality Board, the independent panel that considers changes to state environmental rules, to allow it to develop a plan to slash mercury emissions.

The request follows a petition filed last year by PennFuture, a statewide environmental advocacy group, asking for a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions.

PennFuture's petition sought rules similar to those adopted last year in New Jersey -- the toughest in the nation.

DEP agrees state standards are needed, but has yet to determine whether it will follow New Jersey's lead or stick with the federal Environmental Protection Agency's new standard of a 70 percent reduction.

Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in mercury pollution in its air, waterways and waste products, according to DEP spokesman Kurt Knaus. The state's 39 coal-fired power plants account for 77 percent of the mercury emitted into the state's air, he said. Allentown utility giant PPL Corp. has coal-fired units at three facilities in Pennsylvania, including two aging units at its Martins Creek plant that will close in 2007.

DEP believes EPA's regulations, adopted in March, won't work in Pennsylvania. EPA seeks a 70 percent reduction of emissions by 2018, a timetable that DEP believes is far too long. Instead of requiring every power plant to reduce its emissions, EPA will allow those that can't meet the 70 percent reduction to buy "allowances" from plants that have exceeded the reduction.

Knaus argues that a "cap-and-trade" approach won't work. He said mercury doesn't dissipate, but remains concentrated in areas where it is emitted. Using a trade from another plant won't help areas with high levels of mercury, he pointed out.

Pennsylvania and a dozen other states are so convinced no allowances should be given that they filed a lawsuit to stop EPA's rules from going into effect.

Samuel Wolf of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said mercury emissions pose "a huge health threat."

After it is emitted from a smokestack, mercury falls back to Earth in rain and is absorbed by plants and eventually eaten by fish and animals and ultimately humans.

In adult humans, high doses of mercury can damage the nervous system. Pregnant women and their fetuses are at the greatest risk from exposure.

In Pennsylvania, mercury has already tainted the aquatic food chain. In 2001, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission issued a statewide advisory for fish consumption, urging people to eat most species of locally caught fish only once per week, according to commission spokesman Dan Tredinnick.

Knauss said it's feasible for energy producers to meet tougher emissions standards. Four new plants planned in Pennsylvania will exceed a 90 percent reduction standard.

As far as older plants go, he said, they are already required to add technology to remove nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide as part of President Bush's Clear Skies initiative. Adding the technology to remove mercury would drive up costs by $1 million per unit, he said.

Energy producers say they are committed to reducing mercury, but don't think DEP's approach is the way to go. PPL spokesman George Lewis said the utility prefers a national policy.

Lewis said mercury emissions don't follow state boundaries. Thus, regulating plants in Pennsylvania won't stop mercury from drifting in from states with less strict rules.

In addition, Lewis said, it could cost more to operate a plant in Pennsylvania than in states that follow EPA rules.

To keep costs down, he said, PJM Interconnection, which oversees electricity production in 13 states, could ramp up production at facilities in states without tough rules, leaving Pennsylvania plants with reduced output.

"The plants that cost the least to generate electricity will be the ones run most often," he said. Despite what DEP says, Lewis said, the cap-and-trade approach would ultimately reduce mercury emissions. Lewis said owners of aging plants eventually find the cost of allowances overtake the cost of upgrades. In some cases, it makes more sense to shut plants down, particularly those with high emissions.

Lewis said PPL has yet to decide whether it would upgrade its two other coal-fired plants, in Montour and York counties, or seek allowances if EPA rules remain in effect in Pennsylvania.

DEP is hoping the Environmental Quality Board, a 20-member group of state Cabinet members, legislators and citizens, will agree as early as today to let it write new regulations. If it gets the go-ahead, DEP will have six months to draft new regulations. The Environmental Quality Board would then have to approve or reject the regulations.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

-----

To see more of The Morning Call, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mcall.com .

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

PPL,

Aug 16 - Bangor Daily News

If doubters in Washington and elsewhere have been waiting for evidence that alternative sources of electricity work and are increasingly popular, they should look to the marketplace. A proposed wind farm in Aroos-took County has been slowed down because it can't get the turbines it needs because they are so much in demand. Now, solar system installers report they can't get enough solar panels for all the customers who want them.

The energy bill signed by the president recently will help a little by providing more than $3 billion in incentives for renewable energy over the next 10 years, including up to $2,000 in tax credits for homeowners who install solar equipment and tax breaks for wind power companies. The bill, however, gives several times as much in subsidies to traditional, and more polluting, fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

A provision, passed by the Senate, that required 10 percent of the nation's electricity come from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power, by 2020, was stripped from the final bill.

Building on the subsidies from Washington, it is now up to the market to drive changes in the U.S. energy mix. There is good evidence that this is already happening.

Daryl DeJoy owns a solar installation company in Penobscot. He started his business in 1988 and for years it remained a part-time vocation. He could get plenty of solar panels, but customers were scarce. That changed in 1999 when people worried about the reliability of conventional power sources as the world prepared for major computer malfunctions on Jan. 1, 2000. The dire predictions about massive blackouts and system failures on Y2K didn't materialize, but that didn't deter Mr. DeJoy's customers. He is now telling people he may be able to install a system for them next spring.

The delay is due, in part, to a shortage in solar panels caused by increased demand here, and more notably, abroad. Demand for panels has soared in Germany and Japan, where the governments subsidize solar power consumption. A recent state program to provide rebates and tax incentives for homeowners and businesses that install solar electric and solar hot water systems will spur demand here.

The story is similar for wind power, where turbines were quickly snatched up last year when Congress temporarily extended tax breaks for that industry, leaving Evergreen Wind Power unable to buy turbines for its Mars Hill project. The company aims to install up to 35 wind turbines atop the mountain in central Aroostook County, a project that should get a boost from the energy bill's extension of the tax credit.

The economics of alternative energy look bright.