Mercury Control Costs Could Damage Industry

Mercury Control Costs Could Damage Industry, State

Nov 22 - State Journal, The

Technology isn't readily available to control mercury emissions from power plants. Some energy officials see movement toward mercury regulations as premature and costly to West Virginia power stations, the coal industry and recipients of coal-severance tax revenues.

In its 1997 Mercury Study Report to Congress, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said, "Because the chemical species of mercury emitted from boilers varies from plant to plant, there is no single control technology that removes all forms of mercury"

But if mercury chemistry isn't understood, research is needed to develop technology, declared Dick Bajura, director of West Virginia University's National Research Center for Coal and Energy.

"It doesn't just happen. I'd like to see a much stronger research program in the federal government to solve these problems." he said. He noted that leaders want to know what technology is going to work.

The presumption that technology can be developed and installed successfully according to the mandated schedule in EPA's Jan. 30 proposal troubles him.

"People are sure they can develop the technology in time. And even if you could, could you put it in place (in time)?"

EPA rules are indefensible because emissions tests were all wrong, Bajura said.

Thus, verification is pointless because you can't get a good number."

He added that "elemental mercury goes everywhere. What's coming out of the stack is dynamic and what's in fish in static."

Fish consumption is the primary route of mercury uptake in humans, the EPA says.

The agency sees stiff financial controlcost repercussions.

"There remains a wide variation in the end costs of control measures for utilities and the possible impact of such costs on utilities. Preliminary estimates of national control costs for utility boilers (based on pilot-scale data) are in the billions of dollars per year."

The Tennessee Valley Authority estimated annual costs at $4.5 billion, or nearly $200 million per ton of mercury.

Such control costs, coupled with the scientific and technological deficiencies that Bajura described, could potentially damage industry and bituminous coalproducing states.

West Virginia power generators burned 38 million tons of coal in 2002, Bajura said. That same year, the state produced 150 million short tons of coal, he noted.

"I don't think there will be a complete dropout. (But) suppose we only burn half of that (2002) level?" he said, defining this as the worst-case scenario.

Severance-tax payouts could fall, Bajura said.

Mark Muchow of the state Department of Tax and Revenue presented information at the Energy Roadmap's Coal Workshop on the Role of Coal in Economic and Homeland Security in Shepherdstown on July 22 that the state's coalseverance tax revenues were $180 million in 2003. He noted revenues are dispersed to the state's general revenue fund, which goes to disbursements to counties, education and infrastructure projects, among others.

Treating bituminous and sub-bituminous coals differently, as the EPA proposes, allows more mercury from western than eastern coal when it is burned, said Jeff Herholdt, manager of the West Virginia Development Office's energy efficiency program. Establishing different levels requires plants that use eastern coals to make more significant investments in clean-up technologies, he added.

"This would further, allow western coals to enter markets currently dominated by eastern coals," he-said, adding that "West Virginia coals now compete rigorously with Powder River Basin coals from Wyoming." The prevailing concern is that the EPA regulation "would provide a greater incentive for utilities to use sub- bituminous."

The Western Governors' Association acknowledged that advantage at its September 2003 WGA Policy Resolution 0323. It said, in part, "Western coals are not only used in the west, but are an important fuel source for power plants in the midwest and eastern United States as well. These coals are a key component for power plants in meeting environmental regulations."

Mountain State coal already has lost markets in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, Herholdt explained. But in immediate markets, "we have not seen that yet." He added, "I've been told that no Illinois coal is being burned in Illinois, but that it's been replaced with western subbituminous."

The mercury-in-coal issue seems "a lot like the sulfur-in coalissue," observed Herholdt. "There are some politics in it."

Washington, D.C.-based attorney Eugene Trasko agreed.

At the July 22 Coal Workshop in Shepherdstown, he said the mercury rule has become politicized and that "litigation is possible from all sides," which could be a possible invitation for congressional intervention.

It has occurred preliminarily

In an April 1 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and 47 other senators said the agency's proposals "permit far more mercury pollution, and for years longer, than the Clean Air Act allows." They urged EPA to "withdraw the entire package and re-propose" another

If more congressional intervention and a new rule come, that could mean even more financial penalties for West Virginia power plants and coal - and the state - than the current proposal may impose.