by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal staff
AUGUSTA - Last week, the Bruce MacDonald (D-Boothbay) bill, LD 2126, “An Act to Require Capture and Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from New Coal-powered Industrial Facilities in the State,” moved through its public hearing phase. On Wednesday at 1 p.m., the bill moved into work session, but no information about the work session was available by press time.
Back River Alliance, Conservation Law Foundation, NRCM, and Friends of the Earth spoke in favor of the legislation, which would direct the Department of Environmental Protection to set standards for CO2 emissions for coal fired or coal gasification plants. During the two years while DEP develops its standards for Maine, any new coal plants in the state would have to perform as well as natural gas plants. This would mean any coal plant would have to sequester 45-50% of emissions immediately. “We know these technologies are available now,” said MacDonald. “We, as a state, do not want to backslide. We have pledged to return to 1990 carbon dioxide emission levels under RGGI (the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative). The reason to do this bill now is to set a development milieu in which new developers realize they will have to sequester, not just capture, carbon immediately. It’s too expensive to retrofit these plants, and we do not want to hear in a few years that the developers are pleading poverty because of the prohibitive cost of any retrofit.”
Two representatives of paper industry appeared to speak in opposition, concerned that it would retroactively apply to their private power companies. The bill would not, in fact, affect any operating power plant in the state. Only new plants will be affected by the legislation.
Interestingly, Twin Rivers Energy, the company most immediately concerned with the legislation, which is attempting to build a coal gasification plant on land near the Maine Yankee site in Wiscasset, neither appeared nor sent a representative to speak on its behalf.
During the work session, a change from ‘fossil fuel’ to coal specific language is planned. “There is a good chance of getting the bill out of committee,” MacDonald said. “We have to report all bills out by Friday. Despite any differences between the parties, I hope we will all see the wisdom of doing this now.”
So far, the only members who have signed on have been Democrats. “I hope global warming and CO2 regulation does not turn out to be a partisan issue,” MacDonald said.
|
