Downwind states want coal plants in Pa. to cut emissions

A 13-state commission that cooperates to curtail regional air pollution is petitioning federal regulators to make Pennsylvania’s coal-fired power plants run their existing pollution control equipment every day during warm months when smog pollution is worst.

The commission voted 9-2 last week to send the petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with Pennsylvania and Virginia voting no. New York and Maine abstained.

Pennsylvania regulators say the petition relies on outdated data and does not reflect the state’s current efforts to cut air pollution. A Pennsylvania regulation under development would begin to require coal plants to meet daily pollution limits during summers, but the rule, if finalized, is not expected to take effect until 2023.

The petition was proposed by Maryland environmental regulators who attribute a significant share of their state’s air pollution problems to emissions that float in on the wind from Pennsylvania coal plants.

Maryland’s director of air quality programs, George Aburn, told a Pennsylvania environmental advisory committee last month that Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants are, collectively, one of the largest sources of nitrogen oxide pollution in the Ozone Transport Region, which stretches from Virginia to Maine.

Nitrogen oxides react with other pollution in hot, sunny weather to produce smog, or ozone, an air pollutant that can make breathing difficult, trigger asthma attacks and cause lung damage.

Maryland regulators have calculated that Pennsylvania coal plants could reduce their nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 47 tons a day if they ran their installed emissions control equipment every day.

A reduction of that size “may be the difference between Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington attaining or not attaining the current [air quality] standards,” Mr. Aburn said.

The Ozone Transport

Commission said about 30 million people living in its member states breathe air that fails to meet the current air quality standard for ozone. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified Pennsylvania as a contributor to high ozone within its own borders, as well as in parts of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

An analysis by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups found Pennsylvania coal plants emitted nitrogen oxides at much lower rates in 2005, when emissions allowances were expensive and coal plants had a cost incentive to ramp up their pollution controls to avoid having to purchase allowances.

But the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry said Pennsylvania’s air quality data raises

“significant questions about any potential correlation” between Pennsylvania emissions and excessive ozone levels measured in Maryland, because Pennsylvania did not exceed ozone standards on 23 of the 50 days Maryland did in 2017 and 2018.

“It is a questionable proposition that Pennsylvania facilities are the culprit for the majority of the exceedances outlined in the petition,” Kevin Sunday, the chamber’s government affairs director, wrote.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has considered and denied similar petitions from surrounding states seeking to place stricter controls on the same Pennsylvania coal plants. Federal regulators found the plants were not releasing pollution at levels that would violate “good neighbor” standards under U.S. law.

Electricity generation from coal-fired power plants has already dropped dramatically in Pennsylvania in the face of competition from cheaper natural gas.

Modeling by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection projects coal-fired power generation will drop from 47% of the state’s electricity portfolio in 2010 to 1% in 2030 based on market forces alone.

Gov. Tom Wolf has directed the department to develop a regulation to put a fee on power plants’ carbon emissions and invest the estimated $300 million in annual proceeds in projects that cut down on air pollution, like energy efficiency and renewable energy.

That regulation is expected to spur more coal plants to retire as soon as 2022.

Laura Legere: llegere@post-gazette.com.