The court will now consider the merits of appeals of the requirement by PNM, the N.M. Environment Department and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Those parties maintain EPA’s mandate would cost New Mexico electric ratepayers and others about $750 million or more while a New Mexico plan could meet the same federal visibility rules for $77 million, or about one-tenth of the cost.
Today’s ruling is a decision by the court not to put implementation of EPA’s plan on hold while the issue is considered by the court.
“We remain committed to resolving this issue and, ultimately, to installing the most cost-effective, new visibility controls on the San Juan power plant,” said Pat Vincent-Collawn, chairman, president and CEO of PNM parent company PNM Resources. “In the meantime, we have a strong case to make that EPA violated the Clean Air Act and its own regulations in determining the best available retrofit technology for the plant.”
Vincent-Collawn added: “Today’s decision does increase our focus on convincing EPA administrators to quickly approve the New Mexico plan and, prior to taking that action, put the EPA requirement on hold. These actions are consistent with the Clean Air Act and EPA’s regulations and will serve interests of New Mexico’s economy and its electric consumers. The EPA has full, discretionary authority to grant that stay today.” New Mexico has approved a plan to meet the federal visibility rules by installing a different technology, selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR), on all units at the San Juan plant. PNM supports that plan, which would reduce San Juan's emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 20 percent annually. Combined with reductions resulting from a major environmental upgrade completed in 2009, this would represent an annual NOx reduction of 73 percent from 2006 levels.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment