What a deal: a minimum of $100 million in costs for just one utility in exchange for no benefits — even on a nationwide basis.
The Gleaner (Henderson, KY) reports,
It may eventually cost Big Rivers Electric Corp. an estimated $100 million to install equipment to capture mercury and other toxic emissions to meet new pollution standards announced Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, utility officials said Thursday.
But that’s not all.
“The real impact will be on the O&M” — operations and maintenance — “side of the business,” according to Bill Blackburn, Big Rivers’ senior vice president of finance and energy services as well as its chief financial officer.
Until the costs of operating and maintaining the new pollution controls are known, “We just can’t tell what that rate impact will be” to homes and businesses, Blackburn said…
Activated carbon injection systems will be required for Hg removal. Bag houses will be required to meet the MATS particulate matter or metals emission limits. Under CSAPR, most likely trona injection systems will be used for control of SO2. This technology will also control HCl. $100 million seems like a low installed cost for ACI with baghouses for all units. The material cost for trona and PAC alone will be at or more than $100 million per year if all GRE units are required to reduce SO2 by just 50%. This does not include additional solid waste disposal cost. (Coal combustion residue regs will be Ms. Jackson’s next coal-killing move.)
It does not appear yet that GRE management has a good grasp of the cost implications of MATS and CSAPR.