Commission caves in to power firms on emissions

Date: 16/04/1998

By Chris Johnstone

ENVIRONMENTAL officials in the European Commission have radically rewritten their proposals to curb pollution from power stations, in the face of fierce opposition from the industry.

The latest draft excludes existing power plants from the scope of the rules and eases the demands made on those it covers.

The plan to subject only new plants to stricter emission rules will be greeted with relief by power generators, who warned that earlier Commission proposals would have cost them millions of ecu, closed most of the Union's coal-fired plants and provoked a massive switch to gas.

"A lot of recently built power stations will be able to meet these new standards," said a Commission official.

At one stage, the Commission envisaged a new directive on large combustion plants. Now, instead, officials are looking to amend the EU's existing emission rules introduced almost two decades ago.

The original proposals were framed as part of the Commission's strategy to halve the areas of the Union affected by acid rain, in particular by reducing emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

That acidification target remains, but the burden of meeting it will be spread much more widely, said the official, who added that the Commission expected to set national acidification targets by the end of the year.

The new proposals would force energy companies to generate power more efficiently by combining energy and heat production (co-generation) wherever possible. Exemptions would only be granted if they could provide strong arguments as to why this was not possible.

Co-generation is a great deal more energy-efficient than other forms of power generation and its promotion is one of the pillars of the Commission's energy and environment policy.

The proposed new rules also set out a clear list of materials which can and cannot be burned in power stations to produce energy. This is designed to put an end to recent arguments over acceptable combustible substances.

In the UK, for example, the burning of ore emulsion, a type of heavy tar-based oil from Venezuela, provoked a storm of protest from environmentalists who described it as 'dirty fuel' because of its high sulphur content. Eventually, the company dropped its application to use ore emulsion as fuel.

Although the power firms have won significant concessions in the plan's latest draft, the Commission is refusing to bow to calls for changes to its proposals for measuring emissions.

Officials are sticking to their demand that daily pollution limits should be applied to plants, while the generators want emission totals averaged out over a week or month.

They say daily measurements make it difficult to bring less efficient, more polluting plants on line to meet peak demand.

Talks on the latest proposals between different Commission departments are expected to be held in the next few weeks. It is hoped that the plan will be ready for discussion by the full Commission before the summer break.

DG XI of the Commission has radically rewritten proposals to curb pollution from power stations.