Seabrook Gets Air Pollution Credits

By Dan Gorenstein on Monday, June 2, 2003.

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New Hampshire is the first state in the nation to give a nuclear power plant air pollution credits.

State and industry officials applaud the move as a way to reduce air pollution.

Environmentalists worry the decision creates a national precedent and encourages a renewed reliance on a power source they consider dangerous.

New Hampshire Public Radio?s Dan Gorenstein reports.

Nitrogen oxide causes smog.

And the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services wants to the pollutant 20% by 2006.

DES hopes to meet their nitrogen oxide, or nox goal through the state?s program of clean air credits.

Every smog season the state doles out allowances to facilities that emit nox, and to facilities that don?t.

For the first time, a nuclear power plant, Seabrook in this case, will qualify to receive these credits since they don?t emit any nitrogen oxide.

For DES?s Joe Fontaine, it?s a plan that clearly improves air quality.

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:22 the growing demand within NE for power is going to have to be met by some type of power generation, and I think it?s a convincing argument that any non-emitting source to meet that need is better than emitting generation such as fossil generation.

If, as many expect, federal regulators approve an output increase, Seabrook would receive the clean air allowances for an estimated 70-mega watts.

That is equivalent to reducing more than 2000 tons of Nox a year.

Josh Irwin heads up New Hampshire Public Interest Research Group, or NH PIRG.

He has been a vocal opponent of Seabrook receiving the credits.

He argues the original intention behind the cap and trade program was to promote renewable energy industries, like solar and wind.

Nuclear energy, says Irwin, isn?t worth promoting.

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:08 by subsidizing nuclear power you just set up a shell game where perhaps you don?t contribute to air pollution?but you do down the road, end up with other environmental problems, specifically the troubling question of what you do with nuclear waste.

Richard Meyers with the Nuclear Energy Institute, a lobbying firm for the industry, dismisses concerns over nuclear waste.

Meyers, for over two years, has encouraged New Hampshire regulators to include Seabrook in its Nox program.

He says he?s delighted with the decision.

4:50 this is the first time either at the state or federal level, that there has been any formal recognition that nuclear power has some clean air compliance value?we have been arguing for years now, but to have any branch of gov. is very important.

Meyers says other states, and even the federal government may want to consider the New Hampshire model.

When asked if he thought Seabrook?s inclusion into a pollutant cap and trade program would strengthen the industry he said it was too soon to tell.

Irwin at NH PIRG, disagrees.

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1:25 I think it?s very clear the nuclear power industry is positioning itself for a resurgence. NH was a first forary, and if you look at what is happening at the federal level, nuclear power is pushing for more subsudies, energy bill calls for new nuclear power plants.

Irwin also wonders whether this decision will open the door for Seabrook to seek and receive credits for other pollutants like carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide.

DES Acting Air Division Chief Kent Finnemore doubts air pollution credits will drive the future of the nuclear industry.

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1:48 ?I don?t think that the value of the allowances under this proposal are going to amount enough to whether the industry, or the company allocates millions and millions of dollars to expand their nuclear capacity.

DES estimates that Seabrook may profit as much as 600,000 dollars annually from their air credits.

For NHPR News, I?m DG.