Originally published January 28, 2010 at midnight, updated January 28, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.
Westar Energy, a Topeka-based power company, has agreed to pay $500 million to resolve violations of the federal Clean Air Act for one of its plants. The company, which serves 684,000 customers across eastern Kansas, reached the settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice earlier this week.
The Jeffrey Energy Center, located 30 miles northwest of Topeka, near St. Marys, is Westar’s largest coal-fired plant. It will install new pollution-control equipment that will lower harmful emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide per the terms of the settlement. Westar expects to cut total emissions by more than 75,000 tons each year.
The settlement came in response to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review requirements. Factories and power plants that came into operation after 1977 are subject to these stricter requirements than older plants.
“Today’s settlement sets the most stringent limit for sulfur dioxide emissions ever imposed on a coal-fired power plant in a federal settlement,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, in an EPA press release. “EPA is committed to protecting clean air communities by making sure coal-fired power plants comply with the law.”
The EPA press release said that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions can result in serious adverse effects for humans and the environment. After the pollutants are emitted from coal-fired power plants, they “are converted to fine particles of particulate matter that can lodge deep in the lungs, causing a variety of health impacts including premature death.”
Erin La Row, spokeswoman for Westar, said it was important to note that Westar’s violations are merely allegations.
“While we agreed to settle the case, we do not believe there were violations,” La Row said in an e-mail. “As mentioned in the release, it makes more sense to reach a settlement to invest in a cleaner environment than to spend money on lengthy litigation arguing about these allegations.”
According to the company’s website, “consumers ultimately pay for environmental issues.” The site also says that if the settlement is approved and Westar can avoid litigation costs, “we will avoid millions of dollars of legal expenses, which could have otherwise ended up in electric rates. This should save customers money.”
No specific information was provided on whether customer rates would increase or by how much. The company would have to present the argument for a rate increase to the Kansas Corporation Commission for approval.
“Westar will comply fully but while pursuing the best cost for our customers,” La Row said. “We’ll invest what we must to comply, but not more.”
Mike Draper, a senior from Milwaukee, Wisc., majoring in environmental studies and architecture studies, said he thought the EPA and the Department of Justice took a strong step in the right direction with this ruling.
“I would hope that Kansas can now begin to realize the actual costs future coal-fired power plants will have on our health and those downwind from us,” Draper said. “The state ought to begin thinking of creative energy alternatives. Obviously we should begin looking at the clean, abundant resources we have locally — wind.”
As a part of the settlement, Westar will spend $6 million in environmental mitigation projects, from installing new wind turbines to using plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Draper said he hoped the settlement would push Westar into implementing alternative energy plans, and is proud that these regulations are the strictest in the country.
“I am happy to see these branches enforcing our existing environmental laws,” he said. “This is a historical time for Kansas.”
— Edited by Allyson Shaw
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Comments
Westar pays for environmental violation
Too bad only Westar noted that it is the customers who will pay for this violation, not Westar.
Westar pays for environmental violation
oh burn!
Thanks EPA, my rates are going to go up. Or thanks Westar? I'm not sure who to blame here. My electricity is pretty damn expensive, especially in the summer and is likely to go up as environmentalists wage their war on utility companies to send us back into the stone age. I wish people would stop being so delusional and realize we can't generate all of our energy from renewable resources. Let us build some nuclear plants atleast to take the place of coal fired power plants, so I don't have to pay so much for electricity when it gets warm out. Wind and Solar are great ideas, but don't generate enough electricity to meet demand.
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