As the new home of MASSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Massachusetts can be contacted regarding this news release.
BOSTON—According
to environmental groups in the region, a preliminary proposal from the
region’s governors to cut global warming pollution from power plants
contains two major loopholes – offsets and leakage -- that threaten its effectiveness.
“This
program has the potential to set a critically important precedent for
the rest of the nation,” said Seth Kaplan, a Senior Attorney with the
Conservation Law Foundation. “We praise the governors for their
initiative in this process, but urge them to ensure that the program
has integrity and results in real greenhouse gas reductions from our
power plants."
Offsets
A report released today by a coalition of northeast environmental groups, Cracks in the Cap: How the Offsets Loophole Undermines the Control of Global Warming Pollution from Power Plants,
documents severe problems with the five offset types that the proposal
would allow initially – including that a large fraction of the offsets
are likely to happen anyway, without power plant owners paying for
them.
“We
need to set up a system that can solidly account for real reductions
from the oldest and most inefficient power plants. This program must
give the public confidence that power plant pollution is really being
reduced, rather than allowing pollution trading loopholes to undermine
the governors’ good intentions.” said Frank Gorke, Energy Advocate for
the MASSPIRG Education Fund. “To avoid the worst impacts of global
warming we need to get deep reductions from all polluting sectors, and
that includes power plants. Weak offset provisions only extend our
dependence on dirty old coal plants.”
Advocates
in Massachusetts also warned that the offsets provision, unless
modified, would be a step backward from the standards contained in
existing state rules targeting the so-called “Filthy Five” power
plants.
"The
draft regional proposal lacks some of the essential safeguards that are
in the Massachusetts power plant carbon dioxide rules," said Cindy
Luppi, Organizing Director with Clean Water Action. "It would be a step
backwards to set up a regional program that has weaker standards for
offsets than the state rules that helped inspire it."
“This
program could be significant step in the right direction, but it will
be a missed opportunity if local polluters are allowed to buy their way
out of making substantial reductions at the stacks,” said Jane Bright
of HealthLink, a local group that has pressed for the clean-up of the
Salem Harbor power plant.
Leakage
"A second major loophole is that the regional initiative could simply
shift power plant emissions from the nine participating states to
elsewhere," said Marc Breslow, Director of the Massachusetts Climate
Action Network. "Modeling done by the states forecasts that such
'leakage' could counteract more than 40% of the in-region emissions
cuts."
The
states' preliminary proposal has no plan to prevent or to minimize
leakage. This could mean that while power plants in the northeast
reduce their generation, new coal-burning plants are built in
Pennsylvania and other states, and export their dirty power to the
northeast.
Additional Contacts:
Marc Breslow, MCAN, 781.643.5911
Seth Kaplan, CLF, 617.350.0990
Jane Bright, HealthLink, 781-631-8104
