Environmental Progress - Spring 2001

Healthy air, affordable energy, Illinois coal use... Can we have it all?

Director's Viewpoint

Cleaner and healthier air. A reliable and affordable energy supply. More environmentally friendly uses for Illinois coal.

At recent forums and meetings, we have been wrestling with ways to meet those goals, which at times seem to be more in conflict than in harmony.

At the second annual Governor's Environmental Forum in April, the topic was "Energy and Kilowatts: Emission Reductions in an Era of Power Industry Deregulation."

The discussions centered on the possible use of a "multi-pollutant strategy" focused on air emission reductions from power plants and large industrial boilers.

This is a trendy term in environmental circles now. It means rather than moving on separate tracks for an individual pollutant, a strategy for dealing with an entire group of the most significant emissions might be used instead.

Right now that means at a minimum, for power plants, a strategy involving nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury. And despite the recent decision by the new administration in Washington to reevaluate the Kyoto Protocol, carbon dioxide reductions are potentially part of the mix as well.

The energy crisis currently facing our country has had the effect of magnifying the relationship between power generation and environmental regulation. And air pollution is the environmental issue most directly impacted. Illinois EPA's function as an environmental regulator does not directly encompass power generation, but it certainly does indirectly.

In Illinois, we are somewhat "unique." Among the reasons:

Coal reserves are huge

We are a coal-producing state. In fact, Illinois has the largest known reserves of coal in the world -- we have more coal than Saudi Arabia has oil. The southern Illinois economy is dependent on the coal industry to a certain extent. But the coal Illinois produces is high sulfur, and that has resulted in a depressed industry in recent years.

Perhaps not coincidentally, we have a large number of older, "grandfathered" coal-fired power plants that are held to different environmental standards than are newer plants. And some of these plants were recently sold for billions of dollars, which would seem to indicate they will continue to operate for a while.

Some old plants needed for now

We need at least some of these old plants to continue to operate, at least for the time being. With the shutdown of a few of our nuclear plants, we have a power generation need that cannot be ignored. This generation need is amplified by the problems we have with the power distribution system across Illinois, which makes it more difficult to go out-of-state to satisfy Illinois consumers' power demands. And it is exacerbated by the fact that while we as a society are making progress on energy conservation, the advent of e-business and the so-called "new economy" has actually increased the overall demand for electricity here.

And finally, our location in the middle of the country means that we have it coming and going -- we are, of course, the "victims" of pollution from our upwind neighbor states, and we are the "donors" of emissions to those states located downwind of us.

So in choosing multi-pollutant emissions reductions as a topic for the Governor's Environmental Forum, the statement we intended to make was: "It's time."

It is time that we take a detailed, hard look at the issues facing us. It is time that we find a solution, not just talk.

In the past 12 months or so there have been a lot of statistics thrown around about the health effects of Illinois power plants. We can -- and have and undoubtedly will continue to -- debate the merits of those statistics. But beyond debate is that we can do better.

We have made great strides toward improving the air quality in Illinois -- and indeed across the country -- during the last decade.

"How much, how soon?"

The question is not whether the various pollutants will be reduced -- it is "how much," "when," and whether it is accomplished via a multi-pollutant strategy.

However, Illinois' corporate citizens have the right to ask that emissions reductions be imposed in a reasonable way. And in fact I believe that most people in Illinois would agree -- regulation should take into account factors such as practicality, cost, competitiveness, energy needs, and what the federal government is doing. Regulation does not have to be dictated by these factors, but it should acknowledge them.

The speakers at our forum made a strong case for the increased certainty and significant cost savings and efficiencies of a multi-pollutant approach rather than the traditional single-pollutant rulemaking process. Multi-pollutant strategies generally result in greater reductions more quickly and allow regulated industries to make better informed, longer-ranged decisions as they plan their compliance.

Regardless of which pollutants are considered, we approach the issue with the optimistic viewpoint that clean air and kilowatts -- the environment and energy production -- are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to fashion public policy that will result in cleaner air, a reliable and affordable supply of energy and hopefully, a continued market for coal.

Legislation studied

Last year, at Governor Ryan's suggestion, Illinois EPA convened a working group of the potentially impacted parties to begin discussing possibilities. We made real progress in those discussions. This has led the Illinois General Assembly to discuss possible legislation regarding multi-pollutant emissions reductions.

The importance of the legislation being discussed is not what it would require Illinois EPA to do -- we already have the authority to propose a multi-pollutant reduction regulation. Its importance lies in the statement it makes -- the agreement of all of the players that the time has come.