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COTTON FARMING IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GINNING INDUSTRY.
New Power Plant Rules: Why Should They Matter? There has been a lot of recent media attention focused on environmental standards for existing power plants. While most folks understand this proposal will make it harder to operate a coalfired power plant in the United States, not many understand why this rule generates so much controversy. After all, this administration has been pretty clear all along it wants to wean our country off coal. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for existing and new power plants. These standards kick in whenever you build a new facility, or if you make a major update to an existing facility. They have been around for many years, and are in place for many different industries. For example, grain elevators are subject to NSPS standards if they have a storage capacity of more than 2.5 MM bushels. So the uproar is caused by the way EPA is approaching the update, not the fact that they are updating the standard. First, past standards were updated based on actual installations. For example, if there was a new technology put into place on a new coal power plant, and it worked well, there is a good chance this new technology will be added into the NSPS standard at a later date. Second, past power plant standards were specific to fuel burned and power plant type. Coal-fired power plants had one standard, natural gas plants another. These two items are important precedents in past NSPS regulation, but EPA is trying to change the parameters. In the past, the power company and state Public Utility Commission (PUC) would determine what type of power plant would need to be built, then EPA would get to dictate state of the art controls when the environmental permit application was processed. The new NSPS standard proposed by EPA would reduce average emission requirements below anything that an actual new commercial coal-fired plant could meet.
Cotton Gin Brushes
Channel Saws
Our precision CNC fabricating equipment enables us to produce the highest quality gin brushes and channel saws at a very competitive price. When it comes to our products, we use only the highest quality “Made in the USA” raw materials available. We know gin machinery and the conditions in which it has to perform, and our brushes and channel saws are manufactured to an exacting standard for the modern cotton gin.
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RAM Manufacturing Company 1333 E. 44th St. Lubbock, TX 79404 806-745-5552 Fax: 806-745-5582 rammfgco@rammfg.net www.rammfg.net
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1-800-367-9992 Stocked in Louisiana and Oregon
Kelley Green of the Texas Cotton Ginners Association contributed this article. Contact him at kelley@tcga.org or (512) 476-8388.
A Division of
www.cottonmodulechain.com COTTON FARMING SEPTEMBER 2014
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