<< Back 5/1/02 Clean-air deal reached By Don Hendershot Gov. Mike Easley announced last week that an agreement has been reached on a plan to reduce power plant emissions without raising electricity rates for consumers. “This new clean air agreement is the result of months of hard work. I made it clear to the parties that we must clean up pollution, but that we also must protect consumers. This agreement accomplishes our goal. With creative and innovative thinking, we developed a plan that will clean our air without emptying our pockets,” Easley said in the release. The agreement is the resuscitation of the Clean Smokestack Bill that died last year in the House Public Utilities committee after passing the Senate 43-5. The bill withered under intense lobbying from industries and businesses that objected to public utilities like Duke Power and Progress-CP&L passing on the cost of meeting tighter standards to customers. The new legislation, yet to be written, appears to sidestep that issue for the present. The proposal calls for a five-year freeze in current utility rates then allows the cost to be passed on to customers over seven years following the rate freeze. While there is no guarantee what will happen in 2007, Duke and CP&L spokespersons are on record stating that they don’t foresee any rate hikes. Current rates include surcharges Duke and CP&L have been collecting to offset capital investments on their nuclear sites. These surcharges were scheduled to end in 2004 at which time a rate cut could have been in store. “It’s kinda like putting off your car note while you pay for vinyl siding on your house,” Tom Wil-liams, Duke spokesman said. “The best thing about it for us is it gives us revenue certainty.” Conservation and environmental groups across the region are praising the plan. “The pollution reduction and timelines are not going to change from the original Clean Smokestack Bill,” Brownie Newman, executive director of the Western North Carolina Alliance. The reductions would limit sulfur dioxide emissions to 250,000 tons by 2009 and 130,00 tons by 2013. Nitrogen oxide emissions would be cut to 60,000 tons by 2007 and 56,000 tons by 2009. According to Sen. Steve Metcalf (D. Buncombe), one of the original sponsors of the Clean Smokestack Bill, the new legislation will take S1078 — the bill that passed the Senate last year — and amend the cost recovery language, leaving the rest of the bill virtually intact. Metcalf said that House Public Utilities chairman, Rep. Ronald Smith (D), pledged his support for the bill at a recent press conference. Experts disagree on how much pollution in Western North Carolina is homegrown and how much comes from power plants in the Midwest. Nevertheless, most believe the smokestacks bill will improve the air quality in the mountains. “We think this new plan would have significant impact on the air quality across the state, especially the Piedmont, but the mountains too, it would cut down on the SOx [sulfur oxides] emissions which create most of the haze,” said Tom Mather, spokesman for N.C. Department of Air Quality. Sen. Metcalf believes it can help the western part of the state in many ways. He believes cleaning up North Carolina’s 14 coal-fired utility plants will help improve air quality statewide, and he also points out that language in S1078 gives the state attorney general authority to use any means possible— including litigation— to improve air quality in neighboring states.