LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, CAPE GAZETTE

http://www.capegazette.com/pages/editletters.html

State must clamp down on NRG immediately.

Last year DNREC Secretary John Hughes signed regulations that would require NRG, owner of the Indian River power plant, to clean up its act. At that time Secretary Hughes wrote that the improvements will occur in two phases, one beginning in 2009 and the second in 2012. It was not a request or suggestion.

But NRG said it could not obey the law. They just were not ready.

On Aug. 13, Secretary Hughes shook hands with NRG executives and told them it was okay to miss the 2009 deadline on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen emissions.

As their way of saying “thank you,” NRG said they will meet the caps on mercury emissions by 2009 - the ones they said could not be met by 2009 before the handshake. And as a bonus NRG assured Secretary Hughes that they will obey the law a year earlier than the 2012 deadline with even more reductions than required.

Secretary Hughes believes NRG will honor this agreement. He also believes this compromise is better than fighting a defiant NRG.

So with a handshake, NRG will continue to emit 186,869 pounds of chemicals into the air every day - until someone insists that they obey the law now.

Joanne Cabry, Rehoboth Beach

Are you shocked that the state chose to monitor only the Seaford area instead of locations around the infamous Indian River Power Plant, our greatest single source of pollution?

There was a recent study of the mechanism of how PM2.5 triggers stroke and heart attacks http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092001811.html

STATE BACKS DOWN on CLEANUP REGS.

See the NRG consent order

http://www.awm.delaware.gov/NR/rdonlyres/52A89761-F84D-4BEE-90DF-0346E4CA1BA7/0/NRGConsentDecree.pdf

 

..the deal to delay reduction of toxic sulfur dioxide, or SO2, and nitrogen oxide, or NOx, comes with a big price tag for Delaware. According to the Office of Management & Budget, each reduction of one ton of SO2 saves approximately $7,300 in health care costs and mortality-based benefits. Reduction in NOx emissions saves $1,300 per ton in mortality-based benefits alone.

"Mortality-based benefits" is a term used by economists to quantify the cost of people dying prematurely.

..........................................................

As the article appeared in the 8/25/07  NEWS JOURNAL

By JOHN AUSTIN and PATRICIA GEARITY

DELAWARE VOICE 

Citizens for Clean Power has reviewed the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control's Aug. 9 memorandum to NRG power company. The memo outlines a settlement to reduce pollution from the Indian River Power Plant in Millsboro. NRG's agreement to meet Phase I requirements for mercury reduction by Dec. 1, 2008, is good news. Only weeks ago, NRG asserted this could not be done. (See NRG's "Compliance Plan" for Regulation 1146, posted on DNREC's Web site.)

 

However, it appears the rest of the settlement was driven not by NRG's technical inability to meet Regulation 1146 requirements, but by corporate financial considerations. NRG made no secret of its refusal to comply with Regulation 1146 for Units 1 and 2 (now 50 years old with no pollution controls and no capital expenses). Compliance would require retrofitting the old units at great expense, or shutting them down. Since Units 1 and 2 provide NRG with massive profits, it makes business sense to keep them operating as long as possible.

 

However, the deal to delay reduction of toxic sulfur dioxide, or SO2, and nitrogen oxide, or NOx, comes with a big price tag for Delaware. According to the Office of Management & Budget, each reduction of one ton of SO2 saves approximately $7,300 in health care costs and mortality-based benefits. Reduction in NOx emissions saves $1,300 per ton in mortality-based benefits alone.

 

"Mortality-based benefits" is a term used by economists to quantify the cost of people dying prematurely.

 

The settlement allows NRG to emit 23,000 tons more sulfur dioxide from 2009-2011 than is allowed under Regulation 1146. Based on OMB's calculation for SO2, delaying full compliance with Regulation 1146 will cost $167.9 million in extra health care costs and mortality-based benefits. Instead of reducing NOx emissions below 4238 tons starting in 2009, NRG will be able to emit an additional 5000 tons over three years. The cost of that provision will be at least $6.5 million in health costs and mortality-based benefits.

 

In sum, because compliance with SO2 and NOx regulations has been delayed, the deal will cost at least $174.4 million in additional health costs and mortality-based benefits. How much expense could be offset by the larger reductions in emissions after 2011? The actual reduction in NOx will be from 0.125 lbs./million BTU to 0.100 lbs./million BTU. The reduction in SO2 will be from 0.26 lbs./million BTU to 0.20 lbs./million BTU. In tons per year, these are not large changes. Health-related savings will be about $17.95 million/yr. At that rate, it will take at least 10 years to recover the cost of the deal with NRG.

 

The full cost of this settlement must include the suffering, stress, disease and premature loss of loved ones which will be experienced by many in the coming years. How much did NRG save by settling? We don't know. NRG will continue to pump large amounts of toxic SO2, NOx, carbon monoxide, arsenic, lead compounds, nickel compounds and chromium compounds into the air every day for the next three years. In that respect, little has changed.

 

CCP calls on DNREC to install several gas analyzers and fine particulate, or PM2.5, monitors near the NRG coal plant. We need reliable data on current and future amounts of pollutants at ground level. Currently, the only PM2.5 monitor in Sussex County is at Seaford, well outside the downwind swath of polluted air from the coal plant. Put monitors and gas analyzers in CCP's suspected non-attainment areas of Dagsboro, Millsboro and Lewes. There is no excuse for failing to monitor arsenic, SO2, NOx, carbon monoxide, and fine particulates in locations with high rates of asthma, heart disease and cancer.

 

People have a right to know if substances from the coal plant are making them sick. If the state says it can't afford monitoring equipment, have NRG write a check from their multimillion-dollar revenue stream at Indian River. Make it the price for doing business in Delaware.

 

John Austin is a retired EPA scientist. Patricia Gearity is a retired lawyer. They are volunteers for Citizens for Clean Power, a volunteer group based in Lewes.

 

 

 

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE

JACK MARKELL'S BLOG

http://blog.markell.org/?p=65

 

Cycling, energy, and our future

September 6, 2007 on 10:56 am In General, Tour de Delaware

Delaware’s natural beauty is especially noticeable on a bike. Last week I completed the 2nd Annual Tour de Delaware – a 118 mile bicycle ride from Selbyville to Wilmington.

 

Thursday morning I rode the first leg of the tour, along with my son Michael and about 10 friends, from Selbyville to Little Creek. Early in the trip we peddled though Frankford, Dagsboro and continued on through Millsboro — passing just a few miles from the Indian River power plant operated by NRG. This is the same plant at the center of a controversy generated when NRG filed an appeal against the Multi-Pollutant regulation adopted by the state earlier this year. It came as a surprise to many Delawareans a few weeks ago that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control came to a settlement with NRG which allows the Indian River power plant to not come into full compliance with Delaware’s emissions standards until the end of 2011.

 

Watching Michael take in deep breaths as he led us on that portion of our ride reminded me how important it is that we search for clean, safe energy solutions such as wind power. The true cost of damaging the environment isn’t captured in a spreadsheet. It’s about our kids, it’s about our quality of life, and it’s about a public health crisis – not just 50 or 20 years down the road, but potentially much sooner.

 

John Austin and Patricia Gearity of Citizens for Clean Power have argued that there might be as much as $174.4 million in expenses to the state and to the public as a result of the additional pollution over and above the prescribed limits. Even if the costs associated with this agreement are far less, not enough explanation has been provided as to why NRG was excused from what many Delawareans consider “their share of the check.” After all, NRG has a market value of $9 billion and total assets worldwide of $19 billion, so it can’t be an inability to pay.

 

DNREC has argued that the recent agreement was a positive step for the state – primarily because there will be, in their view, less environmental harm with the agreement than if NRG continued its appeal and no settlement was reached. DNREC also argues that the agreement includes certain provisions even more strict than the original regulations demanded.

 

Nonetheless the NRG settlement raises several questions to which Delawareans deserve answers: First, let’s assume for a moment that NRG does, in fact, meet the timeline prescribed in the new settlement. What is the dollar value of the fines they avoided by not having to meet the original regulations?

 

Second, if NRG does not fully meet the timeline agreed upon in the settlement, what level of fines will be assessed?

 

Third, again assuming NRG does not meet the new timeline, will fees be retroactive to the original regulations? Similarly, will any additional punitive actions be taken?

 

The answers to these questions are especially important because this issue doesn’t end with NRG. Conectiv is also aggressively pursuing a similar appeal. According to papers filed with DNREC, Conectiv acknowledges it has the ability to meet the emission standards but chooses to appeal the regulations instead.

 

Delaware should be a leader nationally in limiting harmful emissions, and we must have penalties with real teeth for companies who don’t take them seriously. It is crucial that these standards be upheld.

EDITORIAL in NEWS JOURNAL.

Suspicion arises from lack of specifics in deal with dirty power plant

Posted Friday, August 17, 2007

 

It's hard to trust the new deal that NRG has with state environmental regulators when there are no specifics about what the operator will do at the Indian River power plant to meet a modified emissions control timetable.

 

Environment Secretary John Hughes says this is a "successful story," but judgment must wait until the private negotiations are legally locked up and final. Apparently only then will the public be privileged to see what they will have to live with for the next five years.

 

Realistically, the coal-burning electric generating plant isn't going to disappear any time soon, as fervent environmentalists might wish. However, Secretary Hughes hints that an old unit there may be shut off. That would be welcome news from a major polluter.

 

Suspicion arises because the deal settles a lawsuit NRG filed objecting to new state emissions limits set last year. Sharp reductions were ordered for sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide starting in 2009 through 2012. NRG argued it could not do design modifications and construction in that timeframe.

 

[Note-For 20 years these power plant owners have refused to clean up. Now they cry that they still don’t have enough time to make changes by 2009.]

 

Secretary Hughes apparently concurs, having commented that NRG should more sensibly invest in upgrading units with longer operational life. The deal is that NRG will miss the 2009 deadlines, but catch up and comply before 2012. Also, NRG will meet mercury caps in this period.

 

The worst fears are that a lawsuit was all it took to undercut tougher state regulations, weakening the state's leverage.

 

Delaware residents have made it clear they favor cleaner energy and worry about environmental risks to health. A Division of Public Health survey just confirmed that older residents around the Indian River plant represent a spike in cancer cases, though no cause is medically attributed.

 

And contract negotiations have run past deadline among Delmarva Power, Bluewater Wind, NRG and Conectiv to install wind turbines offshore along a natural gas power plant as backup.

 

The sense that energy and environmental policy might bog down in the status quo is palatable. It's time to see some specific changes, rather than an ever-adjusting timeline.

 

Copyright ©2007, The News Journal.