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Summer's Coming -- Get Out The Oxygen!
Breathing that nasty yellow haze is dangerous -- so what's being done about it?
By Sam Boykin
Page 2 of 4
The NC Senate passed the Clean Smokestacks Act in April 2000. Since then -- more than two years -- it has been stuck in the House Utilities Committee as the utility companies, politicians and environmental groups tried to work out a compromise on its specifics. One of the biggest points of contention has been over the costs involved in implementing the legislation's new pollution controls, which are expected to exceed $2 billion. It had been estimated that the legislation would have resulted in an increase of about $3 dollars per month in residential customers' bills, and an average increase of about six percent for industrial customers which, as you might expect, had the big power users crying foul.
In late April, Gov. Mike Easley announced that an agreement had been reached among the utilities, state officials and environmentalists to achieve the new emission standards while keeping Duke Power's current electric rates frozen for five years. While the details of this agreement are still unclear, the plan allows Duke Power to recover most of the costs necessary to achieve the emission targets without increasing base electric rates or adding a cost recovery rider. But this also means that electric rates may not go down for five years, and it's still not entirely clear whether outside influences could create pressure to raise rates.
It's important to note that the Clean Smokestacks Act is not yet a law, but a work in progress. All those involved are anxiously waiting to see the specifics of the legislation when the General Assembly reconvenes this week.
"We haven't seen the legislation yet, it's all concept," said Duke Power spokesperson Tom Williams. "We're fully supportive of the concept, we helped come up with it, and we think it's a good way to achieve the emission goals within the existing rate structure. But we haven't seen the fine print, and sometimes the devil is in the details."
"The legislation is certainly a step in the right direction," said Scott Gollwitzer, clean air campaign coordinator for Appalachian Voices, located in Asheville, a city that's experiencing some of the more obvious effects of NC's air pollution. "I sit in my office and some days I can see the mountains and some days I can't because the haze is so bad. So I'm keenly aware of the problems. Maybe not everyone can see it as clearly as I can, but you can be certain they're still suffering from its effects. Industry and personal vehicles certainly pollute the air, but power plants are currently the most viable target " we can drastically reduce pollution levels with one big push."
Not So Fast
While many folks feel that this newest piece of clean air legislation is a step in the right direction, others aren't so sure. Moreover, they're up in arms over the fact that these older power plants are even in operation, and that NC is now looking to spend billions to fix what they say should have been shut down decades ago. Of the 14 coal-fired power plants in NC, the majority were built between 1940 and 1975. When the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, it set new and more stringent emission standards. At the time, it was assumed that the older, coal-fired power plants were nearing the end of their life cycle, and would soon be phased out. Therefore, it made no sense to equip them with modern controls. But here we are, 2002, and the plants are still chugging away.
"It makes no sense for North Carolinians to pour their money into patching up these coal-fired dinosaurs," said Louis Zeller, clean air campaign coordinator for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. "We should be putting our money into alternative sources of power that are cleaner and more efficient. This is a billion-dollar windfall for the utilities. Do we want to spend billions fixing up these ancient machines, or do we want to get something that will work in the 21st century? We're putting a band-aid on something that needs to be scrapped."
Zeller also objects to some of the provisions and compromises that have been made in drafting the clean air legislation, most notably the cost provisions.
"We were happy when the legislation seemed to pick up the banner of the clean air plan in 2000, but shortly after that it was driven into the ditch through negotiations with Duke Power and CP&L," Zeller said. "The biggest problem is this five-year, flat-rate cost provision that has been added. There is already a perfectly acceptable rate process through the NC Utilities Commission (a decision-making body that is open to meeting individually with concerned citizens and whose processes of deliberation are public).
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