|
EnviroPower or EnviroScam? ICE Coalition questions 'clean coal technology' proposed for two Southwest Indiana merchant plants, granted intervenor status The Indiana Clean Energy Campaign (ICE) has challenged two proposed Southwest Indiana merchant power plants that would use alleged "clean-coal technology." ICE and member groups CAC, Hoosier Environmental Council and Valley Watch have been granted intervenor status in the cases of two 550-megawatt plants proposed for Sullivan and Pike counties by out-of-state developer EnviroPower. The proposals are pending before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The groups intervened because of the unproven, experimental nature of the technology being proposed and the plants' potential environmental and public health impacts, said June Lyle, lead attorney in the case and CAC's Special Counsel for Energy and the Environment. "EnviroPower's claims of environmental benefits are really little more than a sophisticated slight-of-hand," she said "High levels of mercury and other pollutants would simply be channeled into the plant's solid waste stream." ICE also is monitoring EnviroPower's application for an air permit with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Lyle said. "We will intervene in those proceedings if necessary." Clean coal an oxymoron with a dubious history, doubtful future The EnviroPower plants would employ circulating fluidized bed combustion, which is supposed to allow the coal to be burned more cleanly than in standard coal-fired power plants. But there are serious doubts about whether "clean-coal technology" lives up to its name. "The term ‘clean coal' is like saying ‘safe cigarettes,'" David Hawkins, climate center director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, recently said in response to a similar proposal in Kentucky: "There is no such thing." Studies by the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress's research arm, have raised questions about clean-coal's viability. In one study, it found that despite receiving over $2 billion since 1985 in government funding "...emerging clean-coal will probably not contribute to the reduction of acid rain causing emissions during the next 15 years." Projected emissions from EnviroPower 'clean coal ' merchant power plants
All measurements in tons. MW = Megawatts See Page 7 for explanation of the pollutants. In another study, the GAO found significant problems with eight U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) clean-coal projects, which had received more than $500 million in government subsidies. Two were in bankruptcy, and six were behind schedule. When costs soared from $300 million to $450 million for a project in Lakeland, Fla., the city abandoned its joint project with DOE. In 2000, GAO estimated that $588 million in federal grants for 13 clean coal technology projects went unspent. Yet, President Bush wants to spend more, even though the technology seems to be overly expensive at this time and its environmental merits under attack. Environmental concerns in Indiana Environmental concerns are paramount with EnviroPower's proposed Indiana plants, which would be fired with coal-mining wastes rather than coal. The company calculates that each plant will generate 2.5 million tons of coal combustion waste each year. "Under state and federal law, these coal combustion wastes are regulated much less stringently than air or water emissions," Lyle said. The EnviroPower plants also will increase Indiana's already severe problems with ozone and other forms of air pollution. Ozone, for example, poses serious health threats for young children, the elderly and people with lung diseases, like asthma. It is created when by-products of burning fossil fuels, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), mix with the sun on hot summer days. Each EnviroPower plant is projected to emit 2,700 tons of NOx into the air annually. Because no dirtier plants will be displaced, the EnviroPower plants' NOx emissions will be in addition to existing air pollution. And when compared with natural-gas-fired plants, their emissions are greater for every major pollutant category that IDEM lists. Each plant also will release more than 10,000 tons of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, hazardous air pollutants, formaldehyde and mercury. Since the plant would burn mainly coal mining wastes, mercury emissions would be significantly higher than at other coal-fired plants. For example, the Clifty Creek plant near Madison was built in the 1950s and, because of a loophole in the federal air pollution control statute, it does not have to meet the most recent clean air standards. It is one of the dirtiest in the country. At over 1,300 megawatts, more than twice the size of either EnviroPower plant, Clifty Creek's estimated 1998 mercury air emissions were 579 pounds. Each EnviroPower plants would emit more than 1,000 pounds of mercury annually. Each plant would increase the state's total estimated emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants by about 20 percent. Andy Knott, Air and Energy Policy Director for Hoosier Environmental Council, is concerned by the level of mercury that will be spewed from the plants if approved. "The prospect of increasing Indiana's mercury emissions by 20-40 percent is appalling," he said. "All of Indiana's lakes and streams are already covered by mercury fish consumption advisories. EnviroPower will take Indiana in the wrong direction. We should be reducing mercury emissions, not increasing them." SW Indiana under environmental siege John Blair, president of the Evansville-based Valley Watch, said he and his organization are concerned because of the large concentration of existing coal-fired power plants in Southwest Indiana, which also has some of the worst air pollution in the state. "Southwest Indiana is already home to the largest concentration of coal-fired plants in the world in terms of output," he said. "EnviroPower will not reduce those emissions, it will increase them significantly." The region's water supply is also a Valley Watch concern. The company plans to use water from the Wabash River, which Blair says already runs shallow during the summer months. "EnviroPower's proposed water withdrawal could restrict the flow to dangerously low levels," he said. Blair also questions the company's credibility, "since they offered ‘sworn' testimony to the IURC indicating that State Representative Dennis Avery has offered his support for their projects. That is patently untrue."
| CAC Home Page
| Table of Contents | Issues Index |
|