By Sandy Bauers and Tom Avril
Faced with a reality they have fought for months, Pennsylvania's coal-plant operators now have to figure out how they can vastly reduce the mercury emissions from their plants.
Under a new rule that went into effect Saturday, they must cut mercury emissions 80 percent by 2010 and 90 percent by 2015.
With the rule, Pennsylvania joins Illinois
among the country's major coal-producing states that have adopted
measures tougher than federal legislation. That legislation requires
cuts of about 86 percent in emissions over the next 20 years.
The state has 36 coal-fired power plants and is second only to Texas in mercury emissions. The new rule would stop an estimated 3.6 tons of mercury from flowing into the air per year.
"This is great news for the people and children of Pennsylvania," said Gov. Rendell's press secretary, Kate Philips.
Mercury
becomes airborne when coal is burned. Once it falls into waterways, it
becomes methylmercury, which is more toxic and accumulates in fish. It
can cause nervous-system damage in a developing fetus and young
children.
But
Douglas L. Biden, president of the Electric Power Generation
Association, predicted a catastrophic fallout among older, smaller
plants.
Unable to afford the new technology, "they're going to go out of business," he said. "They're going to shut down."
The
rest, Biden said, will explore which technologies - or combinations of
technologies - will reduce their emissions by what he said would be
closer to 98 percent, given the intricacies of overlapping federal and
state rules.
He
said that in addition to smokestack equipment, plant operators would
consider switching to coal that has less mercury to begin with, or
washing it with chemicals to remove some of the mercury before the coal
is burned.
One
problem, Biden said, is that not all the technology is proven, so a
plant might go to the expense of installing it and still not get the
reductions it needs.
He
also said that if plants have to spend too much money to meet the new
limits, they will not be competitive in the wholesale market. Then, he
said, PJM Interconnection LLC, the company that presides over the power
grid for 13 states and Washington, might tell Pennsylvania plants to power down and shift production to Ohio plants "to the west, upwind of us."
Exelon
Generating spokesman Ben Armstrong said it was too early to tell what
effect the rule would have on the company, which depends on coal for 9
percent of its electric generation.
Exelon's
two wholly owned coal units - in Eddystone and Phoenixville - have
scrubbers that let them meet existing federal regulations for mercury,
nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, he said.
Allentown-based PPL Corp. is building scrubbers at its coal-burning plants in Montour and York Counties.
Designed
to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, the scrubbers also should reduce
mercury, said spokesman George Lewis, although just how much is
unclear. "We expect that we'll have to do something in addition."
The company has warned shareholders that the tab for extra mercury controls could exceed $500 million, Lewis said.
Like many in the industry, PPL had hoped the Pennsylvania
rule would allow trading, so companies able to reduce pollution more
than required could sell "credits" to plants that could not make the
reductions without great expense.
That may yet happen.
State
Sen. Mary Jo White (R., Venango), chairwoman of the Senate
Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, who battled with the
Rendell administration over the initiative for a year, said yesterday
that she planned to introduce legislation that would incorporate the
Rendell plan but also allow interstate trading of emissions.
PennEnvironment's energy and clean-air advocate, Nathan Wilcox, said his group would be on the lookout for such efforts.
Calling the rule a "tremendous victory for Pennsylvania's environment and public health," he said nearly 11,000 citizens submitted comments in support of the rule.
"So there is a definite sentiment that the public's wishes are being carried out," he said.
