Canada threatens to tighten coal plant emissions rules

Thursday, 15 Sep 2011

It is reported that Mr Peter Kent Federal Environment Minister of Canada is serving notice that he won't tolerate companies trying to sneak around pending regulations to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Kent said regulations for coal-fired electricity plants are not yet final and he could still change the rules especially if corporate interests are trying to skirt them. He added that "Until the final regs are written, they're not written. He emphasized that he has changed regulations at the last minute before for biofuels and he wouldn't hesitate to do it again if necessary.”

He also said in the interview the aim of that grace period was to make sure there was no stranded capital long term investments made under the old regime that would be rendered worthless if the new rules were to apply right away.

Mr Kent said he never intended to create a loophole that would prompt companies to build rule-breaking plants quickly. He suggested he will close that loophole, if necessary.

Calgary-based Maxim Power Corp. is rushing to build a coal-fired plant in western Alberta that would emit far more greenhouse gas than proposed federal regulations would allow. However, under the new regulations, a company already operating by July 2015 could take 45 years to comply.

Maxim officials have told the Alberta Utilities Commission the company had assurances from Environment Canada that its plant would fall under existing rules as long as it is up and running by that time.

Environment Canada has never backed up that claim, environmentalists pointed out.

One option could include changing the date when the stricter standards apply to new plants. The clock would not start ticking for older plants until July 2015 but new plants would face an earlier compliance date.

(sourced from winnipegfreepress)

Dozens Of Coal Factories Forced To Shut Down In Response To Strict EPA Regulation

August09, 2011
By Dina Spector

Electric utilities announced the closure of dozens of coal-fired plants today in response to new EPA regulations mandating facilities to lower toxic interstate emissions. Among them:

* American Electric Power Company said it would retire nearly 6,000 MW of generating capacity.

* Duke Energy said it would retire its 862 MW factory in New Richmond, Ohio.

* Georgia Power, a subsidiary of The Southern Company, said it would close an 871 MW generator by 2018, 18 years before the end of its useful life.

The nation's utility and coal industries have been battling the EPA since July, after the the environmental agency replaced the Clean Air Interstate Rule with stricter standards requiring coal-fired power plants in 27 states to slash thousands of tons of pollutants that drift across state borders.

The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule has received nothing but negative feedback from the affected energy industry, which argues the stricter federal emission law will result in higher costs for electricity and massive loss of U.S. jobs. The plan will also require billions of dollars to retrofit power plants with clean coal technologies.

According to a study prepared by the National Economic Research Associates (NERA), the legislation is among the most expensive EPA rules ever imposed on coal-fueled power plants that will cause electric rates to skyrocket by as much as 23 percent and lead to nationwide employment losses totaling 1.4 million job-years by 2020.

Power-plant closures are expected to increase in the coming months, as utilities complete their cost analyses of complying with the Cross-State rule, according to Industrial Info Resources. The EPA rule has already forced coal facilities in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas to retire old units, rather burden the expense of installing pollution-control equipment.

The coal industry maintains that the EPA doesn't seem to care about the economic damage new regulations will cause.

“Many of these severe impacts would hit families living in states already facing serious economic challenges,” said Steve Miller, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

The EPA believes the annual costs to clean up the coal industry and improve air quality throughout the eastern United States are worth the health rewards. The organization estimates that by 2014, the new legislation will have achieved up to $280 billion in annual health benefits, in addition to preventing up to 34,000 premature deaths, 26,000 hospital and emergency room visits, and 240,000 cases of aggravated asthma.

Along with automobile exhaust, The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), lists out-of-state emissions as one of the Northeast's most serious air pollution problems, according to a report by City Limits.

The EPA regulations are set to go into effect Oct. 7, 2011, with the first emissions reductions to be phased in as early as 2012.

sourced BusinessInsider

Water, CO2 the priorities for China's 5-yr plan

Thursday,Mar03, 2011
* Water quality to feature heavily in new economic plan
* Energy efficiency also high on the agenda
* Priority to CO2 cuts could be bad news for China rivers
By David Stanway

BEIJING, March3 (Reuters) - Tackling environmental problems from carbon emissions to water pollution will be a key focus of a new five-year plan that China will launch during its annual parliament session starting on Saturday.

The plan for 2011-2015 will include new directives aimed at reversing the damage done by 30 years of untrammelled growth, and it will also aim to give a fillip to clean and renewable energy.

The challenges were put in stark focus in an essay by environment minister Zhou Shengxian on Monday.

"The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development," he wrote.

China, the world's biggest source of climate change-inducing greenhouse gases, will put the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions at the top of its agenda.

But those same commitments could also spell bad news for China's vulnerable river systems with hydropower capacity set to surge by 140 gigawatts by 2015. That's nearly three times Australia's total power generation capacity.

Beijing has already pledged to reduce carbon intensity -- the amount of CO2 produced per unit of economic growth -- by 40-45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

It also aims to raise the share of renewables to 15 percent of the country's total energy mix.

"The targets will not be as ambitious as we hoped, because the 2020 targets aren't that ambitious," said Ailun Yang, China campaign manager with Greenpeace.

"I would put much more emphasis on the detailed measures, which are much more important than the targets themselves."

Detailed targets will emerge in the coming months as individual industries issue their own five-year plans.

The government wants to clean up heavy industries such as steel and aluminium, encourage non-fossil fuels, cut nitrogen oxide emissions and improve water and air quality.

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Enforcing new restrictions and targets, especially for CO2 emissions, will test the central government's clout.

Premier Wen Jiabao said last month China would cut energy and carbon intensity by 16-17 percent over the 2011-2015 period, less of a challenge than the 17.3 percent figure suggested last year.

Experts say energy intensity -- the amount used per unit of GDP -- needs to fall by 20 percent to achieve an 18 percent cut in CO2 intensity, but Wen did not make the distinction.

Yang Fuqiang, director of global climate solutions at the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said cutting CO2 intensity by less than 17 percent was little more than "business as usual".

"There is a game being played by the central and local governments, and if the central government adopts 16 percent they will lose their authority because it shows that 'government orders don't go beyond Zhongnanhai'," he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

Yang said a 16 percent cut could allow China to hit the 40 percent carbon intensity goal by 2020, while an 18 percent cut would take it towards the higher 45 percent target.

A commitment to use market mechanisms in the fight against climate change is also expected, with a number of provinces keen to launch pilot emissions trading programmes. Detailed plans will emerge later this year.

Analysts have said China might consider an absolute energy consumption cap over the 2011-2015 period, and draft policies to restrict coal production to 3.6-3.8 billion tonnes by 2015 have also been leaked to the local press. Provinces such as Guangdong might impose their own energy caps to stimulate city-to-city emission trading, but government researchers have dismissed the idea of a national limit.

"There are no such plans," said Zheng Shuai, researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, but added some academics have proposed Beijing implement a limit on fossil fuel use without imposing an overall cap on energy use.

"This is more realistic because it will allow and encourage the use of renewable energy," Zheng said.

DAM NATION

China is desperate to improve its depleted, contaminated rivers, which have been blighted by a spate of burst tailings dams, untreated chemical discharges and plant explosions in the past five years.

In 2009, nearly 20 percent of the length of China's major rivers and lakes were judged unfit even for irrigating crops, according to government figures.

Environment minister Zhou said Beijing will aim to cut 2007 levels of heavy metal discharges in key regions and industries by 15 percent in the next five years.

"We understand thousands of key heavy metal polluters will be put under tightened monitoring and this is important," said Ma Jun of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a non-government organisation that monitors water pollution.

"But there is a lack of transparency and we believe public scrutiny could generate the motivation to cut their emissions."

China will also push for more water conservation, imposing stricter water consumption standards heavy industry.

"We expect to see more action on that but I still believe that the first step is pollution," said Ma.

"The huge volume of wastewater discharge is destroying our very limited clean water resources and if we continue to allow that we cannot talk about recycling and conservation."

But the commitment to cleaning up rivers could be undermined if binding carbon targets lead to a renewed drive for large hydropower dams and reservoirs throughout China.

The five-year energy sector plan is expected to back controversial hydropower plants on China's Nu River, also known as the Salween. Previously untouched rivers in Tibet may be next.

"We need to realise that large hydro by itself has such a large environmental impact that it shouldn't be considered a renewable energy," said Ma.

"In 2004, China overtook the United States as the world's largest hydropower capacity but the plan is to more than triple that by 2020 -- that means in many of our rivers there won't be running water . " (Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai; Editing by David Fogarty, sourced Reuters)