Global Warming Solutions News

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