The California Air Resources Board and other state agency officials kicked off a study November 10 aimed at determining how many fossil-fueled power plants are needed to maintain grid reliability in the populous and sprawling South Coast Air Basin. The study also is to recommend what change in policy may be needed to license construction of the plants under the federal Clean Air Act. The officials are taking up the effort in response to a state law enacted last year, AB 1318, which requires them to submit the study to the governor and state Legislature. California Energy Commission senior policy analyst Mike Jaske explained that the study will seek to determine how many plants may be needed through 2020 in light of more renewable energy, the phase-out of once-through cooling systems at coastal power plants, and the development of transmission lines to bring power into the region from remote locations. He added the study also will examine how demand side management--such as energy efficiency and demand-response programs--may influence the need for power. Once the needs are determined, according to Jaske, the agencies will project the emissions from any new fossil-fueled power plants built to serve Southern California Edison, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, and other utilities in the region. The agencies then will examine what changes may be needed in clean air policy to license the plants, said Mike Tollestrup, Air Board project assessment branch chief. He said changes ultimately may be needed not only in state and local rules and laws, but also in federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines and the federal Clean Air Act itself. The agencies--which also include the California Public Utilities Commission, California Independent System Operator, and State Water Resources Control Board--hope to finish the study sometime next year, though it could take longer. They admitted they are getting a late start. Under AB 1318, the report was due last July. Lawmakers ordered the study amid a shortage of emissions offset credits power plant builders need under the federal Clean Air Act’s new source review provisions to get air quality permits. The provisions require builders to offset emissions created by new plants in the smoggy region. Traditionally, developers either have purchased those credits on the open market from those who have over-controlled emissions or generated the credits themselves by cutting their own emissions more than required at an existing plant. However, due to tight emissions limits in an area, where regulators have clamped down for decades to get the best pollution controls in place to clean up the nation’s worst smog, there has been little opportunity to create new offset credits. Consequently, a shortage of credits developed on the open market in the middle of the last decade. In response, the local air pollution control agency, known as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, tried in 2006 to open up to power plants a pool of credits it maintains for expanding essential public services--like water treatment plants--to serve the region’s growing population. Environmentalists contested the move and in 2008 the Los Angeles Superior Court overturned the air district’s action. Since then, fossil-fueled power plant construction in the region has been on hold (Current, Aug. 1, 2008).
