Implementation of the Southern Company clean air compliance strategy
- Southern Company Services, Birmingham, AL (United States)
The Clean Air Act with the 1990 Amendments is one of the most complex environmental laws to be enacted by Congress. It mandates a vast array of changes that have significantly increased the magnitude and complexity of clean air compliance for sources of air emissions, including coal-fired electric utilities across the US. The Southern Company was involved in the development of the amendments and recognized the necessity, even prior to the November 15, 1990, enactment, for an integrated clean air compliance strategy in order to be able to successfully implement the strategy within a relatively tight compliance timetable. The principle requirements of the amendments that currently affect coal-fired generating plants, and the primary focus of the strategy development and implementation process for The Southern Company, are found in Title IV--Acid Deposition Control. While Title IV contains elements of the traditional command and control approach to regulating nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) emissions and emissions monitoring, this title introduces an innovative market-based allowance system approach to regulating sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) emissions. The development of the strategy and its implementation considered other final requirements of the 1990 Amendments, to the extent possible, as well as potential future environmental requirements. The weighing of the various compliance alternatives to develop a cost-effective strategy became and continues to be a major challenge for The Southern Company and other electric utilities. Within The Southern Company, a multidisciplined project team and numerous task forces have continued to review the strategy and its implementation against changes in a number of key drivers including fuel prices, technology costs, expected allowance values, and regulatory developments. This approach provides the flexibility to match a dynamic environment with the appropriate compliance alternatives.
- OSTI ID:
- 271798
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950196-; TRN: IM9635%%225
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) conference on acid rain & electric utilits: permits, allowances, monitoring & meteorology, Tempe, AZ (United States), 23-25 Jan 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Acid rain and electric utilities: Permits, allowances, monitoring and meteorology; Dayal, P. [ed.] [Tucson Electric Power Co., AZ (United States)]; PB: 940 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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