Power Plants In 2 States Agree To Cut Emissions

The Bush administration has settled two major air-pollution cases in the past two days, forcing power plants in Alabama and North Dakota to spend more than $300 million to reduce tens of thousands of tons of harmful emissions.

Under the agreements, two North Dakota cooperatives and the Alabama Power Co. are to install pollution controls that will cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 46,600 tons a year and nitrogen oxide pollution by more than 14,400 tons a year. Nationwide, the two contaminants are linked to respiratory ailments and heart disease, and account for an estimated 22,000 premature deaths a year.

The settlements negotiated by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are significant because Bush officials have moved to ease pollution rules for aging power plants in recent years on the grounds that they discourage utilities from modernizing.

The Alabama case dates to the Clinton administration. The Bush administration started action against the North Dakota plant in 2002. They are the largest power plant settlements in about a year.

"EPA is committed to taking vigorous, nationwide enforcement action to ensure that companies make compliance with the . . . Clean Air Act a top priority," said Granta Y. Nakayama, assistant administrator for the office of enforcement and compliance assurance.

Eric Schaeffer, who used to head EPA's enforcement division and now directs the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group, said he gives the administration credit for settling "a couple of cases with some real reductions. I'm really glad to see them across the finish line."

The emissions cuts account for a fraction of nationwide sulfur dioxide pollution: one-half of 1 percent, according to 2005 estimates. And some environmentalists, such as Clean Air Watch's Frank O'Donnell, called the settlements "too late, and in the case of Alabama, also too little."

The Alabama Power settlement affects the James H. Miller Plant near West Jefferson, Ala., which federal authorities say includes two new units that should have installed new pollution control technology. The two sides technically are still negotiating over four other Alabama Power plants, but a U.S district court ruling last year in the utility's favor makes it less likely the government will extract significant concessions in those cases.

"We hope now to put this case behind us, and we will continue to move forward on doing our part to improve air quality in the state," said Willard Bowers, Alabama Power's vice president for environmental affairs. In a statement, the firm said it "continues to maintain that the company fully complied with the Clean Air Act."

The North Dakota agreement calls for the Milton R. Young Station, the nation's second-largest emitter of nitrogen oxide pollution last year, to install pollution controls at each of its two steam units.