Study: Power Plant Clean-Ups to Benefit West Virginians
Studies estimate the new rule’s emissions reductions will prevent
between 280 and 710 premature deaths in West Virginia.
The State Journal
13 July 2011
By Pam Kasey
A new round of coal-fired power plant emissions reductions announced
July 7 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency comes with an almost
astounding cost-benefit analysis. The cost: about $2.4 billion a year.
The benefit: $120 billion to $280 billion a year — at minimum, 50 times
the cost, a range validated earlier this year by a Harvard / MIT
analysis.
Those benefits come largely in the form of premature deaths avoided.
After reductions begin in 2012, deaths avoided as early as 2014 range
from 13,000 to 34,000 annually nationwide.
West Virginia will benefit more than most states.
The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule cuts power plant emissions that
travel downwind over state boundaries.
The rule comes in response to the “good neighbor” provision of the
Clean Air Act; it supplants the 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule, which
the U.S. Court of Appeals found inadequate in 2008.
The CSAPR requires 27 states across the eastern half of the nation to
reduce power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, or SO2, and nitrogen
oxides, or NOx, that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution
downwind.
The biggest problem is the fine particle pollution: “PM 2.5,”
particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns and far smaller than the
width of a human hair.
First regulated by the EPA in 1997, PM 2.5 can come from diesel-fueled
vehicles, but most of it comes from coal-fired power plants.
It contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular problems ranging from
asthma and bronchitis to heart attack and stroke.
“Among airborne particles, the smallest (fine) combustion particles are
of gravest concern because they are so tiny that they can be inhaled
deeply and be absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to vital
organs, thus evading the human lung’s natural defenses,” wrote the
nonprofit Clean Air Task Force in a 2010 report.
West Virginia has the highest per capita mortality risk among states,
according to that report. The risk was estimated at 14.7 per 100,000
adults in 2010, with more than 20 per 100,000 in some northern counties
— statewide, a death count of 214.
Pennsylvania’s and Ohio’s mortalities are next highest at 13.9 per
100,000, and Kentucky’s comes in next at 12.6.
Those are conservative estimates, according to CATF, relying on a
method approved by the National Academy of Sciences and using the low
end of a range.
The EPA cites a broad range and estimates the benefits from the new
rule’s emissions reductions higher still in 2014: for West Virginia,
between 280 and 710 premature deaths could be avoided.
It can be hard to directly recognize the effects of pollution
reductions because most health conditions have multiple causes, said
Alan Ducatman, chairman of Community Medicine at West Virginia
University’s School of Medicine.
But “regardless of the source, we are very sure that people who breathe
less pollution do better. The data on that are overwhelming. It’s not
even an argument,” said Ducatman. “We know for sure that less pollution
is better.”
The 2014 benefits follow quickly behind pollution reductions that start
in 2012 because, according to the CATF, most fine particle-related
deaths are thought to occur within a year or two of exposure.
Under CSAPR, the EPA set emissions allocations for each state and for
each generating unit.
West Virginia’s allocation for SO2 emissions drops from 146,000 tons in
2012 to 76,000 tons in 2014; its NOx allocation drops from 59,000 tons
to 55,000 tons.
The first threshold may not be a challenge: 2010 power plant emissions
across the state came to 109,000 tons of SO2 and 53,000 tons of NOx,
well below the 2012 allocations.
Fred Durham, deputy director for the state Department of Environmental
Protection’s Division of Air Quality, was not surprised.
“Many of our larger power plants already have controls on them, and
therefore we wouldn’t expect it to really affect them significantly,”
said Durham.
But meeting the 2014 allocations will require some action and, since
the newer, larger plants already have pollution controls, that could
mean either investing to upgrade older, smaller plants or purchasing
power elsewhere.
FirstEnergy, which recently bought Allegheny Energy and now supplies
electricity generally to the northern and eastern parts of the state,
is not yet sure what it will do.
“No decisions have been made at this time regarding which plants in our
fleet could be outfitted with control technology to meet the new
standards, or which plants might be idled or shut down,” said spokesman
Mark Durbin.
However, when the draft rule was released a year ago, DEP’s Durham
mentioned Allegheny’s Albright, Rivesville and Willow Island power
plants as older, smaller plants without pollution controls that might
be candidates for shutdown. That’s about 650 megawatts of the state’s
15,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation capacity.
Appalachian Power, the AEP subsidiary that provides electricity
generally in the southern and western parts of the state, announced in
June that it likely would shut down, in response to this and other
regulations, about 2,100 megawatts of generating capacity in West
Virginia. It listed its Kammer, Kanawha River and Philip Sporn
generating stations — also smaller, older, less efficient plants.
These plants don’t run often even now, according to Appalachian Power
spokeswoman Jeri Matheney. Nevertheless, Matheney said, they are
important for meeting power demand on the hottest and coldest days and,
without them, the utility may have to contract for purchased power —
which, depending on the cost, may increase customer rates.
In 2014, West Virginia’s SO2 emissions will be down about 85 percent
from 2005 levels; NOx will be down about 68 percent.