That enforcement effort has resulted in 2.8 million tons per year of combined reductions in sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. But in short, they would allow power plants that are installing more energy-efficient equipment, such as new boiler feed pumps, to skip the New Source Review process. It would achieve that by changing the way the plant’s pollution is measured under the rule: Instead of considering a refurbished plant’s annual emissions to decide whether it was polluting more, the rule would switch to hourly emissions. But overhauls also enable plants to operate for more hours per year, meaning overall pollution on an annual basis may go up. The coal and power plant industries have long been lobbying for changes like this.

Source: New York Times August 24, 2018 09:00 UTC