Utility Chief Seeks International Commitment: Official Says Power Plants Need to Do More for Air Quality
Jun 24 - Charleston Daily Mail
The leader of the nation's largest power generator called for an international commitment to control emissions of gases that scientists say have contributed to global warming.
While utilities are generators of greenhouse gases, Morris said the issue is
bigger than that and something everyone contributes to, whether it is motorists
or manufacturers.
"The globe only knows greenhouse gases. It doesn't know where they come
from," he said.
Environmentalists credit AEP with acknowledging that there is a problem with
greenhouse gases, something they say other utilities will not do. But they say
the company should be doing more.
"It is great to see one of the nation's top polluters talk about the
issues," said Bryan Clark, a spokesman for the Sierra Club in Ohio.
Greenhouse gases come from carbon dioxide generated by burning coal, gasoline
and other fossil fuels. If nothing is done, climatologists forecast continued
temperature rises that will disrupt the climate and cause seas to rise, droughts
and other problems.
Coal-fired plants account for 65 percent of the generating capacity for AEP,
which has 5 million customers in its 11-state operating area that stretches from
Michigan to Texas, including West Virginia.
AEP also is set to go to trial next year over a lawsuit filed during the
Clinton administration accusing the company of violating the Clean Air Act by
not installing modern pollution controls at 11 plants in Ohio, West Virginia,
Virginia and Indiana. The company has said it has done nothing wrong and that
work done at the plants was routine maintenance that did not need the newer
controls.
Morris said something like the Kyoto Protocol - which calls for
industrialized nations to roll back emissions of heat-trapping gases - is needed
to set an international standard for emissions. He said the standard has to be
fair to American manufacturers and include developing countries such as India
and China, which already have an advantage over manufacturers in the United
States because they have much lower labor costs.
"We should not put our manufacturing base at an additional competitive
disadvantage unless the rest of the world is really prepared to commit and then
be willing to be measured as we will as a country," said Morris, who came
to AEP on Jan. 1 from Berlin, Conn.-based Northeast Utilities.
"I would love to see a day when the citizens of China understand the
progress they are experiencing to date in an economic sense has an environmental
price," he said.
One of President Bush's first environmental decisions after taking office in
2001 was to withdraw from the treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, by delegates of
163 countries. The Senate voted 95-0 in 1997 to reject many of the treaty's
principals.
Clark said the United States should not wait on other countries to impose
stricter pollution standards.
"We can't wait for AEP and the Bush administration to get us
there," he said.
"We're on their side," said Morris, noting that the company will
spend $3.5 billion over the rest of the decade to reduce pollution from its
plants.
On other topics:
* AEP remains worried about the possibility of another blackout like the one
that darkened the homes and business of 50 million customers from Ohio to New
York and into Canada last August.
"Yes, we're still concerned and we will continued to be as vigilant as
we can," he said.
He said AEP and other utilities have stepped up training, tree removal and
coordination. But, he said, "This is an industry that is still disjointed
at the electric transmission level."
* Morris said the country's inability to come up with a national energy
policy is an embarrassment.
He said the country needs rules that allow utilities to ensure that there is
energy where it is needed. For far more extensive news on the energy/power
visit: http://www.energycentral.com
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