THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Virginia Power has paid $5.3 million for the right to pump 83,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the sky in 2002 and 2003.
Put another way, the utility gets to emit a ton of sulfur dioxide, a key component of acid rain, for every $64 it paid.
Under the national Clean Air Act, Virginia Power must reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions in years ahead to a mandated level, or buy credits for the pollution it emits beyond the allowed level.
The cheaper path often is to purchase pollution credits from other companies, which get to sell them because they have reduced their sulfur-dioxide emissions by even more than the required amounts. For example, a company required to cut its sulfur-dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons could sell 20,000 tons of credits if it reduced the emissions by 30,000 tons.
The beauty of the pollution-credit program is that it financially rewards industry for cutting back polluting emissions more than required. In other words, doing the right thing is made profitable.
Staff writer Scott Harper reported last week that environmentalists applaud the benefits of the program nationwide.
The problem is local. Nancy Summers of the Virginia Consortium for Clean Air said that some regions could suffer from heavy acid rain if big polluters in that region bought credits rather than invested in factory improvements.
Because Virginia Power bought the credits, it likely will stave off expensive improvements on, or extend the lives of, older power plants, including ones in Chesapeake and Yorktown, both built in the 1950s.
Just because a program sounds zany doesn't mean it's bad. But as air-breathing creatures, we'd prefer that Virginia Power sell, rather than buy, pollution credits. by CNB