Wisconsin Electric offers novel coal power clean-up
© 2000 Reuters Limited
June 23, 2000
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin Electric is being joined by state environmental officials in a novel effort to meet federal emission guidelines for the utility's coal-fired power plants without litigation, Kriss McKinney, manager of environmental strategy, told Reuters .
The utility, a Wisconsin Energy Corp. subsidiary, has six coal-fired power plants with about 3,500 megawatts of capacity. That is about two-third's of the company's capacity, spokeswoman Margaret Stanfield noted.
The company and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have filed a joint proposal with the Environmental Protection Agency designed to improve air quality, maintain electric reliability and better manage the costs of air quality improvements, the company said in a statement.
The proposal was filed under the EPA's Project XL Programme, which stands for "eXcellence and Leadership." Created in 1995, Project XL is a pilot programme that seeks innovative ways to achieve superior environmental performance.
If the proposal is approved, Wisconsin Electric said, the EPA will make the regulatory and policy changes necessary to implement the programme, which calls for reductions of nitrogen oxide emissions by 65-70 percent, sulphur dioxide by 35-40 percent and mercury by 40 percent over the next ten years.
Stating this is the first joint state utility proposal and the first to use XL programme, McKinney said Wisconsin Electric is offering these changes in return for flexibility in meeting new source review requirements.
Nothing the delays and litigation that has been involved in determining whether repairs to an existing power plant result in a new source of pollution or not, he said the resulting uncertainty has been expensive and time consuming.
With this proposal, he noted, the utility hopes to use its dollars to achieve clean air rather than litigate.
The proposal calls for meeting system wide goals over a decade rather than making plant-by-plant changes as repairs or modifications are made.