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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE:March 9, 1998
CONTACT: Charlotte LeGates
PHONE:202/326-9316
FAX: 202/326-9334
E-MAIL: clegates@ngsa.org
Natural Gas Producers Applaud EPA's Fuel-Neutral Regional Utility NOx Reduction Proposal
Also Proposes that Approach Be Extended to All Generators, including Renewables and Nukes
Washington, D.C. -- The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) today supported an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal that would equalize nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions requirements for power generators. The proposal, issued last November (Air Docket Number: A-96-56), is designed to reduce the flow ("transport") of ozone and NOx among 22 Midwestern, Southeastern and Northeastern states.
"In the past, many EPA clean-air regulations were structured so that users of high-NOx fuels, such as coal, were permitted higher levels of emissions than were users of low-NOx fuels, such as gas," commented Bruce Craig, NGSA's director of utility regulation and environmental affairs. "This proposal sets limits on a 'fuel-neutral' basis that permits gas users to get credit for the low-emitting properties of their fuel. The level playing field, established in this rulemaking, will go a long way toward eliminating the NOx emissions disparity that exists among generators in the 22-state region today - lessening the political and competitive necessity to address air emissions as part of electricity restructuring legislation."
NGSA also supports the EPA's plan to cap the amount
of NOx emissions each state may allow generators to produce and then to
grant the generators "credits" with which to comply with the limits. The
credits could also be traded to other NOx sources. NGSA advocates an additional
provision of this "cap-and-trade" approach that would base the credits
on the number of kilowatts of electricity produced (an "output-based" allocation
system) rather than the "input-based" system EPA has used in the past,
which bases credits on the amount of fuel used. "An output-based emissions
system rewards efficiency, something that the Agency needs to pursue in
order to integrate their regulatory oversight on air quality with the rapidly
changing electricity generation business," said Craig.
An output-based system could also allow low- or non-emitting generators, such as those using renewable energy, to benefit financially from the environmental contributions that many of them make. NGSA advocates that EPA bring all large power generators into the proposed system by basing a state's NOx "budget" (that is, the total amount of NOx that all the power generators in a state are permitted to produce) on the total amount of electricity generated, not just on electricity generated from fossil fuels.
"Today, wind, hydro, and nuclear generators are not producing NOx at all," said Craig. "But under current approaches, they receive no value or recognition for that. They should. NGSA proposes that all generators receive credits based on their electricity output."
NGSA also urges the Agency to take additional steps to ensure that new and modified generation facilities are appropriately accounted for under the cap and that New Source Review regulations are modified so that new and modified power generation facilities can participate on an equal footing in the proposed NOx cap & trade program.
The complete text of NGSA's filing is available by
clicking here.
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