Keeping Clean Energy, Public Comments on the Table

We've been big fans of Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire because she's a great supporter of clean energy and fighting global warming. This week she even wrote about those issues in an excellent OpEd for the Seattle Times. Yet while we support many of Gov. Gregoire's actions, we must also take issue when coal power gets a boost and the public is not allowed to voice its concerns.

In the past week, controversy arose when the Washington State Department of Ecology announced the results of a deal brokered between the Governor's office and the TransAlta Corporation, owners of the Centralia Coal Power Plant in Central Washington.

The deal rewrites the state's pollution rules for the Centralia Coal Plant and is the result of several months of closed door negotiations discussing several air quality issues which are normally openly regulated under the Clean Air Act. Although some of the specifics of the confidential agreement were disclosed at a recent Department of Ecology meeting, a spokesperson for the department has announced that the full discussions from the mediation process will remain confidential and that there are no plans to allow public comment or involvement in the mediation process or on the deal itself.

Dan Ritzman, the Western Regional Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, said this type of mediation process is highly unusual.

It's hard to know what to think when this whole process has been conducted behind closed doors, but it's hard to believe that this process is in the people's best interest. We haven't been told much about this deal, nor have we been given access to all the documents upon which Ecology based their decision.

Ritzman said the Governor's office entered into the mediation at the request of the Alberta, Canada, based corporation TransAlta. At the company's request, the mediation process was conducted with a confidentiality clause preventing public access or involvement. Ritzman speculates that TransAlta requested this deal seeking to come to an agreement on pollution standards for the coal plant while avoiding the public disclosures and involvement which are normally part of the regulatory process. Ritzman added that "this should have been handled through the regular process, the lack of transparency in these negotiations sets a dangerous precedent for the state."

Despite the coal plant being the state's single largest point emitter of green house gasses and Washington's only dirty coal plant, the new agreement fails to provide any guidance or regulations on global warming pollution. Interestingly, the Centralia Coal Plant was also absent from the Department of Ecology's plan to address climate change which was released last year during the state's confidential bargaining process with TransAlta.

Ritzman and the chapter also took notice that the Department of Ecology's plan calls for some additional monitoring, but no actual control, of the plant's mercury pollution.

It's impossible to know whether this is a good deal for the environment or not unless the public has the opportunity to review all the documents the Department of Ecology used to make this decision. We were under the impression the public would have an opportunity to comment on this agreement.

We know Gov. Gregoire cares about clean energy and fighting global warming. We will continue to urge her to move the state away from coal and to involve the public in the process of planning Washington's clean energy future.

Comments

[SonofLiberty1]

And as we wait for solar & wind and other sources to catch up here's another idea...

Let's really start to save some electricity...

Remember " Earth Hour"?

Remember seeing all those photos of building that are "Not all lit up"?

That's a heck of a lot of electricity used each evening isn't it?

Yes, we can use light for security needs, both inside and outside buildings.

Fact is, according to The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) estimates, we waste about

TEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR in the United States.

Broken down, that's EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS IN WASTED INDOOR LIGHT

And TWO BILLION DOLLARS IN WASTED OUTSIDE NIGHT LIGHTING.

That's a heck of a lot of money for a country to waste when we are in a recession.

Again, that's TWO BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR THAT WE USE TO LIGHT THE UNDERSIDES OF BIRDS, CLOUDS AND AIRPLANES....

Think about it.
If you would like more information, just use Google and type in LIGHT POLLUTION.

[SonofLiberty1]

The real myth here is that we just can't have coal....

Sorry, but right now 50% of our energy is from Coal.

Now, you can talk Solar & Wind all you want but the truth is that it's going to be years in the future for these new sources to get up to speed.

Yes, by all means let's start but we have to be realistic too.

So let's make sure we can get the coal clean enough to use...while we wait for solar & wind to catch up.

[Organic-Guy]

We don't need coal. http://www.cvps.com/cowpower/

[quidam56]

Appalachia can't stand anymore of the prosperity thanks to Bush/Cheney and THE NEW AND IMPROVED, CLEAN, GREEN, HYBRID COAL INDUSTRY.

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138

[DaveWorkman]

Contrary to some reports, a proposed agreement between Washington state and TransAlta will undergo extensive public review.

The company has agreed to voluntarily reduce mercury emissions and cut nitrogen oxide emissions from our state’s only coal-fired power plant.

The Department of Ecology will conduct a formal 30-day comment period and hold a public hearing on the TransAlta proposal. As with any proposed regulatory action, public comments could lead to changes in the proposal. Before the formal comment period, Ecology will release the final language of the proposed agreement as well as technical information related to pollution reductions.

Our state spent nearly two years working to develop a regulation requiring mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. In February 2008, a federal district court threw out the federal rule on which our state’s draft rule was based, nullifying our regulation.

Now, as a result of mediation, the company has agreed to lower its mercury emissions by up to 50 percent by 2012, beginning in 2009.

Mediation is an attempt to resolve issues without resorting to expensive, time-consuming litigation. Although mediation is used infrequently, state and federal regulatory agencies sometimes use it when there are compelling reasons to avoid litigation. Click here for examples of environmental mediation in the state of Washington: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2009news/2009-082.html

David Workman, Department of Ecology, Olympia, Washington