EPA Announces New Clean Air Standards for Coal and Oil Power
Plants
The State Journal
By Pam Kasey
New limits on power plant emissions of mercury and other air
toxics and a three-year compliance timeline remain essentially as
proposed in March in a long-expected U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency rule issued Dec. 21.
"With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is
rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America
with another action that will benefit the American people for
years to come," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "The
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families
and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the
American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs
of compliance."
The MATS rule — also known as the Hazardous Air Pollutants rule
for utilities and the Utility Maximum Available Control Technology
rule — establishes the first national standards to limit toxic air
emissions from power plants.
The rule is expected to cut mercury emissions by 90 percent and
also to cut emissions of arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases
including hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid. The technology that
controls those emissions also will reduce fine particulate matter.
Mercury is a neurotoxin to which fetuses and children are
particularly susceptible, while other targeted emissions cause
cancer, chronic and acute respiratory disorders, and other
illnesses.
The compliance deadline is Jan. 1, 2015.
Changes in the Final Rule
The rule was issued several days after it was expected on
Friday, Dec. 16, leading to speculation that it was being weakened
in the final hours.
Changes, however, were minor and kept the emissions limits and the
three-year timeline essentially as proposed.
Most notably, estimated costs and benefits dropped — from costs of
about $11 billion per year in the proposed rule and benefits of up
to $140 billion, to $9.7 and up to $90 billion in the final rule —
but that's not the result of weakening, according to Jackson.
Costs dropped due to efficiencies suggested by some of the 900,000
commenters on the proposal, she said. Benefits were reduced
because analysis showed that some of the benefits will be realized
through the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule issued earlier this
year.
MATS benefits occur primarily through as many as 11,000 premature
deaths avoided per year but also through the avoidance of 4,700
non-fatal heart attacks, 130,000 cases of respiratory illness
including aggravated asthma and acute and chronic bronchitis, and
540,000 days of missed work, according to the EPA.
In addition, the EPA's jobs analysis finds a net gain of 46,000
short-term jobs as pollution control technologies are installed
and 8,000 long-term jobs to operate and maintain those
technologies.
Plant Closures Expected
Based on the draft rule and other environmental rules expected
or already out, utilities have said they would close some plants
that are too small and old to merit expensive retrofits. More than
30 plants in a dozen states likely will be retired and another 34
may retire, according to an Associated Press survey based on the
draft rule and reported on Dec. 19.
In West Virginia, AEP has said it expects this rule, with other
EPA regulations, to lead to the closure of its Philip Sporn plant
in Mason County, Kanawha River plant in Kanawha County and Kammer
plant in Marshall County. Those three plants amount to 2,200
megawatts of older coal-fired generating capacity — 12 percent of
the state's generating capacity but only about one-tenth of 1
percent of generation in 2010.
FirstEnergy has not yet announced its plans.
"We would need some time to evaluate what the final rules are and
how they might impact our operations," said FirstEnergy spokesman
Mark Durbin. "At this time, no final decisions have been
made on the future of our fossil generating plants."
A state regulator has suggested that FirstEnergy's small, old
Albright, Rivesville and Willow Island plants may be retired.
Those total about 600 megawatts of capacity and represented much
less than one-tenth of one percent of generation in 2010.
Utilities, regulators and electric trade organizations raised
concerns that the combined capacity of plant retirements expected
from the proposed rule and the tight timeline could lead to
reliability problems.
The AP concluded after its survey that the concern likely was
overblown; however, the EPA provided in its final rule for a
fourth compliance year for technology installations and further
flexibility for localized reliability problems.
Reactions
The National Mining Association belittled the flexibility as
inadequate.
"The modest adjustment to the compliance timeline in the MACT
standard merely papers over a deeply flawed rule," said NMA
President and CEO Hal Quinn in a media release.
But PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid in a 13-state
region that includes West Virginia, supported the flexibility
measures.
"We at PJM are pleased that the EPA administrator has included the
key elements of our proposed process to preserve reliability into
documents accompanying the final rule," the organization wrote in
a media release.
The Sierra Club applauded the rule as a "milestone."
And the sustainability advocacy group CERES said the rule would
"unleash investment" in infrastructure and create jobs up and down
the supply chain.
Soon after the EPA made its announcement, Rep. Nick Rahall,
D-W.Va., issued a statement in which he said he had "serious
concerns" about the new rules.
"In fact, I have voted in Congress to prevent their implementation
in the near term. The rules are likely to drive up energy prices
for American consumers and result in the loss of jobs for coal
miners while doing nothing to address the growth in global
emissions," he said. "It certainly makes more sense to me to be
investing in American-made technologies to help American utilities
upgrade to more efficient, cleaner ways of using domestic coal,
rather than putting the rulemaking hammer to American plants and
forcing our coal to be shipped overseas where emissions will be
even greater. From the standpoint sufficiency of our energy supply
and protection of our global atmosphere, we ought to be looking
creatively at coal power, rather than instituting policies that
force coal out of our energy sector."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., also was critical of the rules.
"Today's announcement of yet another onerous rule by the EPA
completely ignores the devastating impact these regulations will
have on jobs and our economy, not only in West Virginia but across
this nation," he said. "The Utility MACT Rule, combined with the
Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that was finalized earlier this
year, are two of the most expensive regulations ever to be
imposed, and every American should be concerned about their effect
on energy prices, the reliability of our power supply, our coal
mining industry and most importantly our families," Senator
Manchin said. "I believe we can find a responsible and reasonable
balance when it comes to the environment and our energy needs as a
nation. My desire to achieve this balance is why my Republican
colleague Dan Coats of Indiana and I introduced the Fair
Compliance Act – a commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation
that would create a fair timeframe to comply with new rules. I
hope that Congress will address these regulations, and take up the
Fair Compliance Act as soon as possible, to prevent the potential
loss of a million jobs, increased utility rates, and more damage
to our economy."