Pa. coal plants pressured to curb air pollution

Downwind states that blame pollution drifting in from Pennsylvania for harming their air quality are putting pressure on the commonwealth’s coal-fired power plants to curb smog-forming emissions, even as new state and federal rules to alleviate that pollution take effect.

Maryland is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in and force 36 power plant units in five states — including 11 units in Pennsylvania — to run pollution controls throughout the summer when ground-level ozone pollution is worst.

The EPA said it will take an extra six months, until July 15, to consider the petition.

Maryland is following the lead of regulators in Delaware and Connecticut in looking outside of its borders to limit pollution that contributes to poor air quality that the states argue they cannot remedy with in-state fixes alone.

The Delaware and Connecticut petitions singled out Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants: Homer City Generating Station in Indiana

that contributes to the formation of groundlevel ozone.

In the fall, EPA updated one of its primary mechanisms for regulating the transport of power-plant pollution into downwind states — the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. The rule’s limits will apply in May.

Separately, Pennsylvania’s emissions standards for major industrial nitrogen oxides sources, known as Reasonably Available Control Technology requirements, took effect on Jan. 1.

Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant owners and their advocates say Maryland’s request duplicates those standards, which will likely achieve the same result.

For example, Pennsylvania’s new rules do not spell out a requirement for Cheswick Generating Station to run its NOx controls all the time, but as a practical effect, the regulatory limits demand just that, said David Gaier, a spokesman for the plant’s owner, NRG Energy.

Power plant representatives also suggest Maryland can do more within its borders to limit emissions from vehicles — a significant source of nitrogen oxides — before casting blame on already-regulated power plants that are complying with environmental laws and regulations.

In essence, Maryland is asking the EPA to redo the calculations it finished when the agency established the new cross-state air pollution rule, said David Flannery, legal counsel for the Midwest Ozone Group, which represents Midwestern and Appalachian power plants, coal companies and utilities. EPA considered Maryland’s suggestion to measure emissions over shorter time periods as it developed that rule and rejected them, he said.

“That is a policy decision that has now been resolved,” Mr. Flannery said. “It has been resolved in a way that Maryland doesn’t favor, but it’s been resolved.”

In its petition, Maryland said the cross-state air pollution rule and many state regulations allow for averaging across a month or several months in a way that allows plants to bypass their controls on some days and run them efficiently later to make up for it.

Maryland’s petition also laid out specific suggestions for emissions rates it wants the EPA to impose on the targeted plants. For each Pennsylvania power plant named in the petition, Pennsylvania’s new control standard is less strict than the individual caps that Maryland requests.

Pennsylvania’s new rule “is a big improvement over the current rule,” Tom Schuster of the Sierra Club said, but it is not as strict as the environmental group would have liked. “If it were a bit stricter, then I would say the [Maryland] petition would be moot, but I think there is still some progress that could be made.”

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, which developed the commonwealth’s control technology standards, said it supports efforts that will help all areas of the 11 states in the Ozone Transport Region achieve national air quality standards.

But DEP also said it believes the rules just being implemented for power plants and vehicles will ultimately reduce ozone levels so areas are in compliance.

The Pennsylvania agency has not formally weighed in on Maryland’s petition. A spokesman said it will if the EPA asks for input or if it has comments to offer after the EPA issues a proposed decision.

Pennsylvania has in the past used the same federal Clean Air Act mechanism to petition the EPA to require Midwestern and Southern states to limit pollution that wafts into the commonwealth.