Mary Schoen
Environmental Strategies
Enron Corp
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 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Barnes, Lynnette  
Sent:	Wednesday, November 07, 2001 7:22 AM
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Subject:	NH agrees to clean air

State, environmentalists, Public Service announce Clean Air agreement 
By MIKE RECHT 
Associated Press Writer 

Nov. 6, 2001 
Associated Press Newswires 
Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. 

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The state, environmentalists and Public Service Company of New Hampshire announced a compromise agreement Tuesday they say will cut air pollution. 

The plan would make New Hampshire the first state to pass legislation to reduce four major pollutants from fossil fuel-burning power plants, although Massachusetts and Connecticut have approved regulations on some of the gases. 

An attempt failed last spring to pass a more stringent bill that Public Service, a subsidiary of Berlin, Conn.-based Northeast Utilities, did not support or oppose. This agreement represents a version put together by environmentalists, the state and the utility.

Ken Colburn, director of the Air Resource Division of the Department of Environmental Resources, said a compromise bill is better than no bill at all.

"I'm not a believer in the jackpot theory of environmental progress," he said after the Statehouse news conference to announce the agreement.

Rep. Jeb Bradley, chairman of the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee, acknowledged it is a "much smaller reduction proposal" than the earlier bill. But he said it is significant because it moves in the right direction.

Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who proposed last year's plan, said the amended Clean Power Act "is essential to the health of our citizens, the protection of our environment and our state's future economic success."

Shaheen said the agreement means Public Service's three coal-burning plants in Bow, Portsmouth and Newington will have to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, the chief cause of acid rain; nitrogen oxide, which causes smog; carbon dioxide, which affects climate change, and eventually mercury, which threatens the health of humans and wildlife.

Public Service president Gary Long said the agreement would cost the utility about $5 million annually, or less than 1 percent of a customer's average bill.

Representatives of the Audubon Society, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New Hampshire Lung Association, New Hampshire Lakes Association and others joined in applauding the agreement.

Missing, however, was the Clean Water Coalition and the Public Interest Research Group, which panned the agreement.

Steve Blackledge of PIRG said the bill does not require Public Service to reduce overall emissions, or to make on-site improvements to reduce emissions.

"I still think we can get more, and need to get more in terms of real reductions," he said.

Catherine Corkery of the New Hampshire Sierra Club, which is part of the Clean Power Coalition, said it was not asked to take part in the discussions on the bill, and Blackledge said PIRG also was not invited.

However, Corkery said including carbon dioxide in the agreement "is awesome."

"That sends a strong message on the federal level," she said.

President Bush has delayed carbon dioxide cuts to allow further study of the economic consequences and global warming.

Doug Bogen of Clean Water Action and the Clean Air Coalition, an ad hoc group of environmental and public health organizations, said the amended agreement doesn't go "nearly far enough. It doesn't require emission reductions, it allows unlimited trading of pollution credits."

He predicted environmental groups and others will oppose the pact when the Legislature convenes.

"We're hoping it can be made stronger and we are working with some legislators to do that, but obviously they have a lot of people supporting this," he said.

Long said the less stringent amended bill "takes a more reasonable approach" to reducing mercury emissions, waiting to set a standard until more is known about it. It also retained the utility's ability to choose between cutting pollution from its own plants or buying "pollution credits" from other industries that can achieve more economical emission reductions.

One of the complaints about the earlier credits was that they could be bought from companies so far away it would do no good for New Hampshire.

Bradley said the measure also takes a slower approach on carbon dioxide controls and offers incentives for Public Service to buy pollution credits from other industries closer to New Hampshire.

Blackledge still had problems with the credit buying.

"The trading is so broad and gives so much leeway it will be far easier for the utility to trade than make on-site improvements," he said.

Bradley said coal-burning plants are needed to provide diversity in energy supplies, and without the ability to buy pollution credits, Public Service could not continue to operate the plants.

"What we've tried to do is cut a reasonable course, one that ensures the plants ... can continue to operate, but at the same time make environmental progress, and do it in a way that's cost-effective and maintains diversity of fuel resources." 




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