Handful of US utilities pollute most - study
Date: 25-Mar-02
Country: USA
Author: Chris Baltimore
Utility industry groups immediately criticized the new Natural Resources Defense Council study, saying the analysis ignored a steady 10-year reduction in emissions by companies.
The report, co-authored by Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. , a utility that advocates cleaner generation sources, was meant as a shot across U.S. legislators' bow to pass laws to limit power plant emissions.
The Bush administration is preparing a proposal that critics say would let utilities make voluntary cuts in emissions, rolling back the Clinton administration's vigorous enforcement.
"The high emission levels of many companies and the vast differences in emission rates among companies demonstrate the need for comprehensive power plant pollution clean up legislation," NRDC's Dan Lashof said.
Based on data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department, the report found that American Electric Power Co. Inc. , Southern Co. and the Tennessee Valley Authority emitted from 17 percent to 24 percent of harmful emissions in 2000.
Those emissions include nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide - blamed for acid rain and haze - as well as mercury, which is linked with birth defects. The pollution also included carbon dioxide, a contributor to global warming.
U.S. utilities countered that they have steadily reduced their emissions by spending billions of dollars to install pollution-control devices.
Since 1990, utilities have cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 15 percent and sulfur dioxide by 20 percent while boosting power output by 13 percent, Electric Reliability Coordinating Council spokesman Scott Segal said. "Air quality trends are improving, even as energy consumption increases," he said.
The emissions rankings "should be viewed in the context of historical and continuing emissions reductions," a spokesman for another industry group, the Edison Electric Institute, said. And regardless of the rankings, none of the utilities are breaking the law, he added.
AEP, the nation's largest electricity generator in 2000, was also largest emitter of the four pollutants, the study said. AEP said it was only natural that the company would have the largest amount of emissions, because of its size.
The report ignored a 50 percent reduction by AEP in nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, company spokesman Pat Hemplepp said. "These numbers are half of what they were a decade ago because the Clean Air Act is working," he said.
Report co-sponsor PSEG said in January it would spend $300 million over 10 years to install emission-reduction equipment at its New Jersey coal-fired plants as part of a federal settlement.
PSEG said the report's data is meant to show "how our environmental performance compares with our competitors," said Mark Brownstein, PSEG's director of environmental policy.
The Tennessee Valley Authority will spend over $5 billion to cut nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent by 2005, said John Shipp, the agency's general manager of environment and planning.
