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PSEG Fossil L.L.C. Fact Sheet
PSEG Fossil LLC Fact Sheet (PDF) ( 5 pp, 57K, About PDF)
- Overview
- Affected Power Plants
- Environmental Neutrality
- Option to Shutdown Hudson Unit 2
- Planned Shutdown of Kearny Units 7 and 8
- Civil Penalty and Environmental Mitigation Projects
Overview:
On July 26, 2002, the United States
District Court for the District of New
Jersey approved a judicial settlement between
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA),
the State of New Jersey, and PSEG Fossil LLC (“PSEG
Fossil”) to resolve PSEG Fossil’s
violations of the Clean Air Act. The
settlement required PSEG Fossil to install
and operate state-of-the-art controls for sulfur dioxide
(SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and particulate matter (PM)
emissions on every coal-fired unit it operates, to retire
SO2 and NOx allowances, and to undertake environmental
projects.
In late 2005, USEPA learned that PSEG
Fossil would not be able to comply with the December
31, 2006 deadlines in the 2002 Consent Decree to
install a flue gas desulfurization (FGD) device (also
known as a “scrubber”) to
control SO2 and a baghouse to control
PM on its highest polluting power plant, Hudson Unit
2. USEPA also learned that PSEG Fossil would not comply with
a May 1, 2007 deadline to install a selective catalytic reduction
device (“SCR”)
to control NOx at Hudson Unit 2.
Subsequently, USEPA, New Jersey, and
PSEG Fossil began negotiating an amendment to the
2002 Consent Decree. The Amendment imposes $6.0 million
in civil penalties for PSEG Fossil’s anticipated failure
to comply with the 2002 Consent Decree, provides
a new timeline to PSEG Fossil to install controls, imposes interim emission
reduction measures and requires additional pollution
reductions to ensure that the environment will be made whole despite PSEG
Fossil’s
prospective violations of the 2002 Consent
Decree. In addition, PSEG Fossil will implement a
host of diesel engine retrofit/replacement projects for the State
of New Jersey valued at $3.25 million. With these new requirements,
the Amendment is “environmentally
neutral” to the 2002 Consent Decree, and achieves
permanent reductions beyond that required
for in the 2002 Consent Decree.
State Partnerships: The State of New
Jersey, as a party to the 2002 Consent Decree and
co-plaintiff in the original lawsuit, was instrumental
in negotiating this Amendment. This Amendment is another excellent
example of how the state and federal government can
work together to protect the environment and public
health.
Affected Power Plants:
The Amendment requires pollution
reductions and imposes new deadlines on power
plants included in the 2002 Consent Decree, including
Hudson Unit 2, Mercer Unit 1 and Mercer Unit
2. In addition, the Amendment requires the shutdown
of two uncontrolled oil-fired units, Kearny Units
7 and 8.
Environmental Neutrality:
The proposed changes
to the 2002 Consent Decree will be at a minimum “environmentally
neutral.” This means that an Amendment has to
achieve the same or greater emission
benefits as the original 2002 Consent
Decree and such emission reductions
must take into consideration when
they are achieved. This is known
as “quantitative
and temporal neutrality,” respectively.
In addition to installing the required
controls at Hudson by the extended duedates, the
Amendment achieves quantitative neutrality for SO2,
NOx, and PM by requiring PSEG Fossil to:
- Achieve an emission rate on its SCRs at Mercer Units 1 and 2 of 0.100 lbs./mmBtu on a 90 day rolling average, by January 1, 2007;
- Advance installation and operation of an FGD on Mercer Unit 2 from 2012 to 2010;
- Operate two new baghouses to control PM and mercury emissions from Mercer Units 1 and 2 by December 31, 2008;
- Limit fuel to 100% ultra low-sulfur coal by May 1, 2007, comply with an SO2 emission rate, and meet annual tonnage caps for SO2 and NOx at Hudson Unit 2 until PSEG installs an FGD or shuts down the unit;
- Install carbon injection systems to make best efforts to achieve a 90% reduction in mercury emissions at Hudson Unit 2, Mercer Unit 1 and Mercer Unit 2;
- Shut down Kearny Units 7 and 8 (two uncontrolled oil-fired units), and surrender any SO2 allowances allocated to those units in excess of the operational needs for PSEG Fossil’s compliance with the amendment and the 2002 Consent Decree.;
- Install PM and Mercury Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS).
Table 1, below, identifies the specific changes to the 2002 Consent Decree effected by the Amendment as it relates to Hudson Unit 2, Mercer Unit 1 and Mercer Unit 2.
In addition to considering the quantity that
must be reduced to achieve neutrality with
the 2002 Consent Decree, the Amendment also
takes into consideration PSEG Fossil’s
delay
in failing to timely install and operate pollution
controls. In short, a ton of air pollution reduced
today is more valuable to public health than
a ton of air pollution reduced at some later date. To achieve this “temporal
neutrality,” USEPA and New Jersey
discounted
the
emission
reductions that were later in time than those
reductions under the 2002 Consent Decree.
To
the extent that the discounted emission reductions
fell short of the emission reductions under
the
2002 Consent Decree, the Amendment requires
PSEG
Fossil to surrender three times that amount
in
allowances. For example, the
Amendment
requires that, to achieve temporal neutrality
for
NOx, an additional 410 tons of NOx be
eliminated through the purchase and surrender
of that quantity of NOx allowances
(1 allowance
equals
1 ton of emissions). This amendment also requires
PSEG Fossil to surrender an additional 820
NOx
allowances,
as
a “premium”over
and
above
the
amount
of allowances necessary to achieve temporal
neutrality.
In total, 1,230 NOx allowances
will
be surrendered. For
SO2, PSEG was able to demonstrate temporal
neutrality. However, for PM, there is a temporal
shortfall of 2,856 tons. Since there is no
applicable PM allowance program, PSEG Fossil
will be required to surrender 2,856 SO2 allowances
to address this temporal shortfall. Similarly,
the amendment requires a premium of 5,712 SO2
allowances over and above the amount of allowances
necessary to achieve temporal neutrality. In
total, PSEG must surrender a total of 8,568
SO2 allowances, or three times the 2,856 SO2
allowances needed to achieve temporal neutrality
for PM.
Option to Shutdown Hudson Unit 2:
PSEG Fossil
is considering whether or not to shut down
Hudson Unit 2 by December 31, 2008. If its
decision is to shut down, PSEG Fossil may
be ordered by the Department of Energy to operate
Hudson Unit 2 to address energy reliability concerns,
notwithstanding PSEG Fossil’s
plans to shut it down.
To address this situation, the Amendment requires
that even in the face of such an order, PSEG
Fossil shall not operate Hudson Unit 2 beyond December
31, 2010 unless it has installed the controls and complied
with emission rates and pollution reduction measures
in the Amendment.
Planned Shutdown of Kearny Units
7 and 8:
The Amendment requires the permanent
shutdown of Kearny Units 7 and 8, two uncontrolled
oil fired units in the PSEG Fossil system.
The Amendment also requires the surrender of
any pollution control permits issued for those
units, as well as any excess SO2 or NOx allowances
allocated to those units that are not otherwise needed for
PSEG Fossil’s compliance
in a given year
with the Amendment and 2002 Consent Decree.
Civil Penalty and Environmental Mitigation
Projects:
PSEG Fossil is required to pay a total
civil penalty of $6.0 million to the United States
and the State of New Jersey for prospective violations
of the 2002 Consent Decree. The United States
will collect $4.25 million in civil penalties. New Jersey
will collect $1.75 million in civil penalties
and will require PSEG Fossil to perform environmental projects
valued at $3.25 million focused on reducing particulate matter
from diesel engines in New Jersey.
(See PDF for Table)