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CST: EPA doesn't need to double-regulate haze

By Star-Tribune Editorial Board


August 14, 2012


Acting with its typical disregard for doing its job, the Environmental Protection Agency left the state of Wyoming on its own to develop a plan to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Once Wyoming had a reasonable regional haze plan in place — and industry began spending huge sums of money to comply with the new rules — the EPA claimed the state plan was inadequate and developed its own, more stringent proposal.

Fortunately, Wyoming’s three-person congressional delegation has officially objected to the EPA’s plan and asked the agency to let the state implement its own regional haze plan.

Obviously, state regulators want to see less air pollution, and they worked with industry to establish deadlines to meet standards of the federal Clean Air Act that weren’t being enforced — including the haze created by power plants. Haze is primarily produced from the pollutants nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Rep. Cynthia Lummis expressed confidence in the regional haze plan developed by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

“The approach suggested by the EPA is unnecessary,” the delegation charged, “and violates the traditional job of state regulators to address this issue.”

The delegation is correct in its assertion that the EPA’s plan amounts to double regulation of industry that could wind up raising consumers’ electrical rates, while bringing few benefits.

To understand the full impact of the EPA’s action, all one has to do is consider how the federal regional haze plan would affect Rocky Mountain Power’s operations in Wyoming.

Company spokesman Dave Eskelson noted that Rocky Mountain Power is already following the state plan’s deadlines, which require it to install controls for nitrogen oxide at its Jim Bridger Power Plant near Rock Springs. The equipment would be put online at four units in 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2022.

However, the EPA wants all of the controls installed at Jim Bridger by the fall of 2017. The feds also want the company to install additional emissions control equipment at its Wyodak plant near Gillette and its Dave Johnston plant near Glenrock.

This year, Rocky Mountain Power has followed the state plan and installed additional emissions controls at its plant near Kemmerer, and has agreed to convert another unit to natural gas.

Eskelson estimates that to comply with the state plan, the company will end up spending about $1.2 billion. But if it has to comply with the EPA’s plan, it will add another $1 billion to the price tag.

“The issue is primarily about the costs to electric consumers under the required environmental upgrades,” Eskelson said. “EPA’s plan has the net effect of accelerating required investments with negligible improvement in air quality.”

The federal agency is scheduled to reach a final decision on its regional haze plan by Oct. 15. We hope the EPA listens to Wyoming’s congressional delegation’s concerns and considers the evidence that the regulations Wyoming developed already do a good job of protecting the public from pollution.

The state stepped up to the plate when the feds weren’t properly enforcing the Clean Air Act, and it was successful in working with industry to reduce pollution. Now the EPA is trying to jump back into the game late and force unnecessary, costly pollution controls that will ultimately result in whopping utility bill increases for consumers.

The bottom line, as our delegation pointedly told the EPA, is that Wyoming is fully capable of regulating its own air — and should be allowed to do so, without federal interference.






August 2012 News Clips