Public to Get a Say in WA’s Coal-Fired Debate
Published on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 by Chris ThomasRead More County & State
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) says it will
release a draft plan this summer for transitioning the state's only
coal-fired power plant, in Centralia, away from coal as a fuel source.
The state and plant owner TransAlta have gotten a lot of heat from conservation groups, saying the public has been excluded from negotiations about reducing the plant's pollution output. Seth Preston, communications manager for the DOE's Air Quality Program, points out that the plant emits different types of pollution, and these are being discussed separately.
"There are a couple of different processes here. One is the ongoing work that we're doing to lower mercury and NOX emissions from the plant. That is separate from this; this agreement we're talking to is specifically about greenhouse gases."
Nitrogen oxide (NOX) is a pollutant in the haze that commonly affects Mount Rainier. The governor has given TransAlta until December 31, 2025 to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by half. The environmental community is pushing for a deadline ten years earlier. Preston calls 2025 a "no later than" date, and says the state will work to get it done sooner.
Kathleen Ridihalgh, senior regional representative with the Sierra Club, says her group is glad to hear that the public will be able to comment on the plan - although she's concerned that the company and the state have already been talking privately for the past year.
"We are a little cautious that this is a little bit too late. We want to make sure that the negotiations are still open, so that the public feedback is valuable and, if there is a lot of demand for an earlier transition, that they take that seriously."
In a recent Sierra Club poll, 72 percent of Washingtonians said their primary concerns about the TransAlta plant are health-related. The state has said the Centralia plant is the largest carbon polluter in Washington. The draft plan will be made public in July.
The state and plant owner TransAlta have gotten a lot of heat from conservation groups, saying the public has been excluded from negotiations about reducing the plant's pollution output. Seth Preston, communications manager for the DOE's Air Quality Program, points out that the plant emits different types of pollution, and these are being discussed separately.
"There are a couple of different processes here. One is the ongoing work that we're doing to lower mercury and NOX emissions from the plant. That is separate from this; this agreement we're talking to is specifically about greenhouse gases."
Nitrogen oxide (NOX) is a pollutant in the haze that commonly affects Mount Rainier. The governor has given TransAlta until December 31, 2025 to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by half. The environmental community is pushing for a deadline ten years earlier. Preston calls 2025 a "no later than" date, and says the state will work to get it done sooner.
Kathleen Ridihalgh, senior regional representative with the Sierra Club, says her group is glad to hear that the public will be able to comment on the plan - although she's concerned that the company and the state have already been talking privately for the past year.
"We are a little cautious that this is a little bit too late. We want to make sure that the negotiations are still open, so that the public feedback is valuable and, if there is a lot of demand for an earlier transition, that they take that seriously."
In a recent Sierra Club poll, 72 percent of Washingtonians said their primary concerns about the TransAlta plant are health-related. The state has said the Centralia plant is the largest carbon polluter in Washington. The draft plan will be made public in July.
