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Exec
Asks US Government To Mandate Emission Standards Frank Cassidy, president and chief operating officer of PSEG Power LLC, told a U.S. Senate clean air subcommittee recently that a mandatory national program to cut power plant air pollution emissions is the best way to protect the nation's air quality and should be enacted while the electric power industry makes the transition to competition. Cassidy testified on behalf of PSEG and the Clean Energy Group before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety. The subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), is holding hearings on Clean Air Act reauthorization. The Clean Energy Group is a coalition that describes itself as "[sharing] a commitment to clean energy and energy policies that are economically sustainable and environmentally progressive." Its membership includes Consolidated Edison Company, KeySpan Energy, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, Northeast Utilities, PECO Energy, PG&E Generating Company, Sempra Energy, and PSEG. Cassidy testified that Clean Energy Group companies "share a common concern that the economic benefits of a fair and robust competitive marketplace and the social and public health benefits of improved air quality will not be achieved unless the relationship between national energy policy and environmental policy is recognized and rationalized." He called for adoption of an integrated air strategy that would provide energy companies regulatory certainty on which to base business strategy and investment decisions while delivering significant reductions in power plant emissions of: nitrogen oxide, which contributes to creation of ground level ozone (smog); sulfur dioxide, which creates fine particulates and acid rain; carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas; and mercury, a growing public health concern. The Clean Energy Group proposal calls for a mandatory, nationwide emissions caps for these pollutants; established dates certain for specified emissions cuts; and implementation of the program through flexible, market-based mechanisms such as emissions banking and trading and credit for early reductions. This approach, Cassidy said, will: * Allow and encourage companies to plan and coordinate emissions control strategies on a comprehensive, multi-pollutant basis and reduce the potential for stranded investment in pollution control technologies. * Deliver timely and necessary emissions reductions that will help attain national clean air objectives. * Foster a fair competitive energy market. * Encourage investment in new electric generating capacity that will reduce emissions and enhance electric system reliability. Cassidy said the Clean Energy Group has supported EPA initiatives to control power plant air emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, pollutants traditionally associated with the industry. Compliance with these initiatives has been delayed through litigation and political wrangling. "The strong probability that environmental policy makers will begin to regulate mercury in the near future and that carbon dioxide reductions also are on the horizon increases the concern that a pollutant-by-pollutant approach will result in a continued cycle of political agitation, litigation and delay. This is a scenario in which progress toward meeting clean air goals is frustrated and uncertainty about business decisions involving billions of dollars in assets and the lives and livelihoods of millions of investors and employees is exacerbated." The integrated strategy, he said, in which the amount and timing of emissions reductions are coordinated and implemented on a nationwide basis will deliver significant and timely emissions reductions and provide industry with regulatory certainty that can be factored into investment decisions..
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