PSC, environmentalists clash over EPA rules for power plant emissions

PSC, environmentalists clash over EPA rules for power plant emissions
By Tom Crawford | Published: July 29, 2014

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided the battleground Tuesday for Georgia's Public Service Commission to go head-to-head with environmental and clean energy groups over proposed federal regulations that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The Atlanta faceoff is one of four national hearings that EPA officials are holding to get public input on the rules proposed in June that call for power plants to reduce the greenhouse gases they emit by 30 percent over the next six years.

Originally scheduled to be held at the Sam Nunn Federal Building, the Atlanta hearing was switched at the last moment to larger facilities at the Omni Hotel at the CNN Center.

The Public Service Commission, whose five members are all Republicans, is lining up squarely behind Georgia Power Co. and other utilities with coal-fired generation plants that would be affected by the new EPA rules. The commissioners are denouncing the proposed regulations.

While Georgia Power's mix of coal-based generation facilities has declined from about 60 percent to 40 percent over the past few years, largely because of a switch to natural gas-fired plants, the utility giant still operates coal-fired Plant Scherer near Macon, which is ranked as one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmentalists and alternate energy groups, on the other hand, support the EPA's proposed rules and are testifying in support of them.

"I am deeply concerned that this rule intrudes on the state's electric regulatory authority," PSC Chairman Chuck Eaton said in prepared remarks for the EPA hearing.

"This rule also ignores the thorough process that the PSC undertakes to accomplish its mission," Eaton said. "As a result, I am concerned that this rule, in combination with EPA's proposed rule for new power plants, will increase the cost of power to our citizens and unnecessarily strand investments we have made in the existing generation fleet."

PSC member Stan Wise expressed similar misgivings at a panel discussion in Washington Monday that was sponsored by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) under a grant from the U.S. Energy Department.

"We didn't get credit for converting a coal plant (Plant McDonough) to natural gas and the EPA numbers assume that our two nuclear power plants under construction (at Plant Vogtle) are already in production, when clearly they're not," Wise said.

"Our staff is very surprised by the numbers that came down," Wise added. "It's not a 30 per cent reduction but a 50 per cent reduction. In my state, it will cost reliability and it will cost ratepayers dollars."

Conflicting testimony was provided by Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).

"Let's not make this too complicated, the opposition to this rule is here for one reason and one reason only, to protect the interest of industries that emit carbon pollution, or protect their investment in technologies that emit large amounts of carbon, all at our expense," Smith said.

"They ignore the innovation, technological advancement and power of a properly configured market to solve this problem, choosing instead to cling to an outdated worldview and business model," Smith contended.

"To those who loudly proclaim that reducing carbon pollution may be 'too costly,' I would point out that direct and indirect costs from coping with asthma alone total more than $18 billion annually – and other diseases, such as heart and lung disease, are also made worse due to pollution from our power sector," SACE policy director Jennifer Rennicks said.

"A recent Harvard Medical School study found that coal pollution costs the United States' taxpayers between $175 and $523 billion every year in health and environmental impacts, which means coal power is three times more expensive than it appears on our power bills," Rennicks said.