Lawmakers put hold on Hogan smog plan, questioning its
strength
Lawmakers
seek delay in Hogan smog plan, calling it weaker than O'Malley power plant
pollution curb.
Democratic state lawmakers are butting heads again with the
Republican Hogan administration, this time over its move to soften smog curbs
originally ordered by former Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Leaders of a
key legislative committee placed a temporary hold on a Hogan administration
regulation that they contend weakens requirements for the state's coal-burning
power plants to reduce emissions of smog-forming pollution.
The move is
the latest in a running skirmish between Democratic lawmakers and Hogan over
the issue, which first flared shortly after he took office.
In a letter
to Environment Secretary Benjamin H. Grumbles, the committee leaders wrote that
an analysis of the administration's proposal finds it will be less protective
of Marylanders' health than the rule signed off on by O'Malley.
"We're
now asking the (Maryland Department of the Environment) to respond," said
Del. Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat who is
co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative
Review.
The
lawmakers' move drew praise from the Sierra Club, which has accused the Hogan
administration of weakening smog protections at the behest of NRG, a New
Jersey-based energy company that has two coal plants on the outskirts of
Washington that would be affected.
Grumbles
issued a statement Tuesday defending the new rule, without specifically
responding to the critical analysis cited by the lawmakers.
"We
stand behind the smog reduction rule and the greater benefits it provides to
Marylanders," Grumbles said. "The science is strong and so is our
commitment to finalize this balanced regulation as soon as possible."
But Hogan
spokesman Matthew A. Clark struck a more combative tone, criticizing "a
small group of obstructionists" while pointing out that the
administration's regulation has the support of a labor union as well as of NRG.
"Extremism
and divisiveness won't make the air in Maryland any cleaner," Clark said,
"but the administration's proposed regulations will."
The original
rule, approved in the final days of the O'Malley administration, aimed to
reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning plants on hot summer days,
when smog — and electricity generation — are both at their highest levels. It
would have given four plants — two each in the Baltimore and Washington areas —
until 2020 to install costly new pollution controls, switch to burning cleaner
natural gas or shut down.
Pennsylvania-based
Talen Energy, owner of the C.P. Crane and H.A. Wagner plants in Baltimore,
agreed to the O'Malley rule, though it has since announced it is selling Crane
to another company.
But New
Jersey-based energy company NRG said the requirements were too stringent and
unnecessary, warning it would shutter its Dickerson and Chalk Point plants and
lay off hundreds.
Hogan pulled
the O'Malley rule within hours of taking office and directed regulators to take
another look in light of NRG's complaints.
The new
rule, formally proposed in September, would give power plants more flexibility
in deciding how to meet smog limits. Companies like NRG with several plants
could average emissions from facilities with state-of-the-art pollution
controls along with those from older facilities lacking similar equipment.
Grumbles has said the health protections of the new rule would be "equal
to or greater than those in the previously proposed regulations."
The
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents the at-risk
NRG workers, praised the Hogan rule.
But a review
by Bruce Buckheit, a former air pollution enforcement chief with the Environmental
Protection Agency, concluded that it "requires minimal, if any, additional
overall emissions reductions" beyond those already achieved.
Buckheit's
review was commissioned by the legislative committee, but David Smedick, the
Sierra Club's Maryland campaigner, acknowledged that the club recommended him
and that Buckheit has done paid consulting work on other air pollution issues.
Smedick said the Sierra Club did not pay for this analysis.
Sierra and
the Chesapeake chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility have sued the
Hogan administration seeking to have the O'Malley regulation reinstated.
Smedick said activists hope that, "over the next few weeks and months, we
can work with the administration to clean up our air to protect the health of
Marylanders throughout the state."
By law, the
legislative panel can't permanently block the regulation, but can delay its
adoption at least until the beginning of the year — shortly before the General
Assembly convenes in Annapolis
"We
could do something during the session," Rosenberg said, "but nothing
more now."
Some
Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill during the last legislative session that
would have written the O'Malley smog curbs into law, but it failed to get out
of committee. Rosenberg and the panel's other co-chairman, Sen. Roger Manno, a
Montgomery County Democrat, also have asked for all correspondence the
department received after proposing the new rule.
The friction
over fighting smog comes less than a week after Democratic lawmakers and Hogan
administration officials joined in the unanimous recommendation of a state
commission to seek deeper cuts in Maryland's emissions of climate-altering
carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.
Earlier this
year, Hogan also averted a looming clash with environmentalists over a
significant source of the nutrient pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay. After
vowing during last year's election campaign to block or revoke an O'Malley
regulation that would have severely restricted farmers' ability to fertilize
their crops with poultry manure, Hogan pulled the rule only to later re-propose
the curbs, though with a somewhat longer timeline for compliance.
Smog, or
ozone, has proven contentious nationally, as business and industry have
challenged a decision by the EPA to tighten limits on what level is considered
safe to breathe in the air. Ozone levels in Maryland have improved considerably
since the 1990s, when the Baltimore area had the worst smog in the eastern
United States. But it remains bad enough at times in summer to pose health
risks for vulnerable people, including children, the elderly and those with
respiratory problems.
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