LA-area power plant pollution doubles so far this year

LEON DROUIN KEITH, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, April 17, 2001, ©2001 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/04/17/state2119EDT0277.DTL&type=news

(04-17) 18:19 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As they worked overtime to try to avoid blackouts, power plants in the Los Angeles basin polluted more than twice as much in the first three months of 2001 as they did in the same period the year before, according to the area's air regulator.

Power plants in the basin sent 2,045 tons of oxides of nitrogen into the air, up from 905 tons in the first three months of 2000, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Oxides of nitrogen are precursors to asthma-inducing smog, and prime targets of pollution-fighting rules.

Southern California plants polluted more because the dirtiest generators needed to be turned on to try to prevent rolling blackouts. The region had to make up for power that it ordinarily would have received from out of state because of a lack of hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest and the faltering credit of private investor owned utilities.

Electricity deregulation combined with a reliance on pollution credits to clean the air meant ``we ended up with the worst of all possible worlds,'' said Sierra Club lobbyist John White. ``We have high wholesale prices and high air pollution.''

Power-plant operators pushed for pollution-credit programs -- in which companies reaching their pollution limits can buy credits other companies don't need -- as an alternative to installing pollution-cutting equipment at their dirtiest plants, White said.

But those credits became scarce and expensive when the most polluting generators were fired up, and some plant operators exceeded their limits.

Two of the region's biggest power providers, AES and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, paid a combined $31 million in settlements with the air district to compensate for the excess pollution.

More than a dozen plants -- most owned by AES and the DWP -- are in the process of installing equipment that will cut emissions by about 90 percent, said air district spokesman Sam Atwood. Atwood said the district estimates there will be enough pollution credits to go around this year, ``but it's going to be tight.''

An emergency order by district Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein allows power plants that run out of pollution credits to pay $7.50 per pound of excess pollution. That order may be incorporated into the district's rules when its governing board considers revisions to the pollution credit program next month, Atwood said.

The South Coast air district covers Orange and urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

©2001 Associated Press

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), April 18, 2001