Clearing the air: North Carolina's Clean Smokestacks Act 2002 N.C. Sess. Laws Chap. 4.

• Author: Morandi, Larry
• Position: On Reconsideration

ONE YEAR LATER

North Carolina's air pollution control law is arguably one of the toughest in the nation--state or federal. So what's happened with the law one year later?

It looks like compliance is on target. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the utilities commission told the legislature in May that Progress Energy and Duke Energy (the two utilities regulated under the law) appear to be meeting the requirements of the Clean Smokestacks Act.

To illustrate how the utilities will meet the NOx limits, Duke Energy plans to install selective catalytic reduction equipment on three of its generating units, and selective noncatalytic reduction technology with low NOx burners on its remaining 24 units.

For SO2 reduction, the company will install "scrubbers" on its 12 largest units. Duke projects that these measures will reduce NOx emissions to below the 35,000-ton limit in 2007. For SO2, the company expects to meet the 80,000-ton limit in 2013.

Duke Energy spent $3.6 million last year to comply with the act, and expects to spend $1.5 billion over 10 years. No small amounts, but as a company official noted, the law requires the company to reduce emissions to specific levels and builds in a way to finance those reductions through a freeze on electricity rates that should generate enough revenue to cover the compliance costs.

Progress Energy will likewise employ technology fixes to a number of its facilities. Its Asheville plant will be the first in the state (by fall of 2005) to install scrubbers to comply with the SO2 reduction levels.

"Everything seems to be right on schedule," said Garrick Francis, a Progress Energy spokesman. "While the timeframe for reaching reductions is challenging, it is realistic given the technology we propose to use." The company spent $830,000 in compliance costs in 2002, and expects to spend $823 million over 10 years to reach emission reduction levels.

Environmental groups, which sought to ensure that actual emission reductions were achieved in the state and not merely transferred to power plants in other states in the region, have also expressed general satisfaction with the act's early implementation schedule. Michael Shore, southeast air quality manager for Environmental Defense in North Carolina, notes that both Duke and Progress Energy held meetings with environmental groups to discuss their strategies before filing their plans--"the process was quite open."

Since one of...