Defender, Winter 2010

Page 1

Defender the

CLEAN WATER

• CLEAN AIR • CLEAN ENERGY

Winter 2010 • Vol. 40, No. 1

focus on

DIRTY COAL | Wisconsin’s Dirty Dozen | Retrofit or Retire? | | Dirty Coal Q&A |

RETROFIT OR RETIRE? Wisconsin needs a plan for D i r t y Wisconsin’s

Closing old, Dirty Coal plants

DOZEN

By Katie Nekola, Energy Program Director

By Katie Nekola

For almost 100 years, Wisconsin’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants has released thousands of tons of soot, mercury and other pollutants into our air and water. Federal and state regulations that limit the allowable emissions of these pollutants have historically been weakened by powerful coal and industry lobbies. Now, however, they are becoming more stringent. In fact, older coal units can no longer operate without installing expensive pollution controls that will allow them to comply with new air quality rules. In particular, the new rules require that power plants reduce their nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions. Nitrogen oxide, or NOx, causes respiratory illness and contributes to ground-level ozone. Mercury from coal plants has contaminated every body of water in Wisconsin, making it unsafe to eat larger fish from our streams and lakes. In order to reduce emissions, the owners of these coal plants must install scrubbers and other types of pollution control equipment (PCE). This equipment does not eliminate the pollutants; it reduces the total amount, and it does not affect global warming emissions at all. PCE allows coal plants to keep operating for another 25 years to 30 years (or more) and continue to churn out the same amount of CO2 for the entire extended life of the plant. Pollution control equipment is not cheap, and ratepayers will see the cost on their monthly bills. In Oak Creek, for example, retrofitting Units No. 5 through No. 8 with PCE will cost WE Energies customers almost $1 billion. In addition, costs for this project have exceeded the amount originally approved by at least $60 million. The Public Service Commission approved this project, saying in part that the Oak Creek (continued on page 4)

Wisconsin wants to do its part to stop global warming. But as the 13th most coal-dependent state in the nation (surpassed only by coal mining states themselves) and with no coal of our own, Wisconsin’s continued reliance on dirty fossil fuels hampers our progress on global warming emission reductions. Wisconsin generates greenhouse gases 33-percent faster than the national average. There are currently over 7,000 megawatts of coal generation operating here, and the state’s 12 dirtiest plants emitted more than 46 million tons of CO2 in 2008 alone (see page 7 for the list). To make matters worse, 1,700 megawatts of new coal generation were approved earlier in the decade, before widespread public understanding of global warming. With these new units coming online some time in the next two years, Wisconsin’s CO2 pollution is expected to increase (continued on page 7)

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INSIDE Taking Charge and Taking Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Clean Wisconsin Legislative Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Reducing Mercury in our Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Clean Energy Jobs Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Groundwater Legislation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Focus on Old Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7 Legislative Profile: Sen Pat Kreitlow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Water Conservation; Live from Copenhagen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 MGA Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Ask David; Enviro-SCRAMBLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 What’s in your Mailbox?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Thank You!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Out & About with Clean Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12


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