| for
members only |
may
2002 |
 |
Legislative Issues
Alan
Hirsch, Gov. Easley's policy director, briefs members of
NCCBI's
Environmental Concerns Committee on the new clean air
agreement
Governor
touts new smokestacks proposal
The
business community seems genuinely interested and eager to
learn more about an agreement hammered out by Gov. Mike
Easley, the chair of the state Utilities Commission, the
utilities commission’s Public Staff and the state’s two
utilities to dramatically reduce air pollution from coal-fired
power plants without increasing electricity rates for
consumers.
The agreement, which will have to be turned into legislation
for consideration by the General Assembly, calls for Duke
Power and Progress Energy to spend up to $2.3 billion
upgrading their 12 coal-fired power plants by 2013. To pay for
the pollution-control equipment, the state would freeze
utility rates at current levels for the next five years.
Otherwise, those rates possibly could be lowered in coming
years as the utilities retire debt taken on for other
purposes.
NCCBI’s Environmental Concerns Committee heard a briefing on
the issue on April 26 from Alan Hirsch, Gov. Easley’s policy
director. After the briefing, the committee passed the
following motion:
”We are encouraged by the clean smokestacks plan announced
by the Governor. We support the framework and reductions that
are proposed. We look forward to working with the governor’s
staff and the legislature as details for a bill are developed.
We also look forward to learning more about how the economics
of the proposed plan will work and how this will impact our
members, particularly our industrial members.”
Gov. Easley said the agreement is the result of months of hard
work. “I made it clear to the parties that we must clean up
pollution, but that we also must protect consumers,” he
said. ”This agreement accomplished our goal. With creative
and innovative thinking, we developed a plan that will clean
our air without emptying our pockets.”
Easley said the agreement will lower nitrogen oxide
emissions over the next seven years by 78 percent from 1998
levels. He said it will achieve a 74 percent reduction in
sulfur dioxide over the next 11 years from 1995 levels.
The agreement was welcomed by the head of Duke Power and
Progress Energy. Bill Cavanaugh, the CEO, chairman and
president of Progress Energy who is a director of NCCBI, said,
“We commend Governor Easley and the leadership in the
General Assembly for their work in developing this sensible
and balanced plan to improve North Carolina’s air quality.
We support this new proposal because we believe it provides a
fair and efficient way to achieve our shared objective of
cleaner air, reliable service and affordable rates.”
Richard B. Priory, chairman, president and CEO of Duke Energy,
the parent company of Duke Power, said, “We think the
proposal is an innovative and creative approach that enables
North Carolina to exceed federal air emissions standards for
power plants in the most cost-effective way. It allows us to
recover the costs of meeting very ambitious emission reduction
targets while keeping current rates frozen for five years.”
Legislation that would have accomplished a comparable
reduction in emissions from the coal-fired plants, but at the
cost of higher electricity rates, passed the state Senate last
year but never made it to the House floor. NCCBI was neutral
on that bill.
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