Environmentalists: EPA Overstated Coal Ash Benefits
Charleston Gazette
31 December 2010
By Ken Ward Jr.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration has greatly overstated
the possible economic benefits of recycling toxic coal ash, a move that
is delaying - and could possibly scuttle altogether -- tougher
regulations on the handling and disposal of power plant wastes,
according to a report from a coalition of environmental groups.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering the new rules
in the wake of the December 2008 collapse of a coal-ash impoundment in
Tennessee and growing citizen concern about similar dumps around the
nation.
Industry officials and some within the White House are concerned about
one possible approach, in which EPA would label coal-ash a "hazardous
waste" to be fully regulated under the federal Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act.
Opponents say this path would hurt the market for reuse of coal ash in
products like cement and wallboard. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is among
those who have complained to the EPA about the potential impacts.
Cost-benefit figures included in the EPA's rulemaking proposal estimate
that coal-ash recycling is worth about $23 billion a year. However,
that estimate is more than 20 times higher than the $1.15 billion the
government's own data show is the correct bottom-line number, according
to the new report issued this week by the Environmental Integrity
Project, Earthjustice and the Stockholm Environmental Institute's U.S.
Center at Tufts University.
"The deep flaws in the EPA cost-benefit analysis appear to have escaped
scrutiny at the White House Office of Management and Budget, which
required [the] EPA to include a weaker coal-ash proposal favored by
utilities and some coal-ash recyclers," the groups said.
"Common sense and past experience indicate that stricter standards for
disposal will work to increase, rather than decrease recycling," the
groups said. "But either way, [the] EPA ought not to be intimidated
into adopting weak rules based on grossly inflated values for coal-ash
recycling."
Among the flaws identified by the environmental groups in the EPA's
estimate:
· About half of the coal-ash recycling benefits claimed by
the EPA are based on assumptions that substituting fly ash for 15
percent of U.S. cement production would cut fine-particle emissions by
more than 26,000 metric tons per year. The EPA's Office of Air and
Radiation, however, has estimated that the entire cement kiln industry
releases just more than 15,000 metric tons per year.
· The EPA estimated that recycling fly ash in cement kilns
saves $4.9 billion in energy costs, but the agency's Office of
Radiation, in a separate regulatory report, estimates total energy
costs for the entire industry at no more than $1.7 billion.
"Unfortunately, [the] EPA and OMB just got this wrong," said Eric
Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project. "The
'regulatory impact analysis' prepared by [the] EPA to support its
proposal exaggerates the economic left cycle value of coal-ash
recycling, which could end up stacking the deck in favor of the weaker
regulatory option favored by industry."
Coal-fired power plants generate more than 130 million tons of various
ash wastes every year. The numbers have been increasing as more plants
install scrubbers and other equipment to control air pollution, but
shift the toxic leftovers from burning coal into ash and other wastes.
By 2015, the annual amount of coal ash generated at U.S. plants is
expected to increase to 175 million tons, a jump of more than a third.
No single national program sets up a concrete regulatory plan for the
handling of those "coal combustion wastes." Instead, the nation relies
on a patchwork of state programs that vary in terms of their standards
and their level of enforcement.
The issue simmered for years, with little focus from political leaders,
until the spill of a billion gallons of coal ash -- containing an
estimated 2.9 million pounds of toxic pollutants -- from a Tennessee
Valley Authority plant two years ago.
Despite initial tough talk on the issue, EPA Administrator Lisa P.
Jackson issued a regulatory proposal that did not settle on a
particular strategy. The EPA sought public comment on one approach that
would regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, with nationwide
regulations, oversight and enforcement, and an alternative that would
leave actual regulation mostly up to the states.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.