Posted: Friday, October 23, 2009

The owners of the coal-powered electricity plant in Centralia, Washington are negotiating with the state to reduce their global warming emissions. That includes the possibility of converting the huge plant to natural gas. The closed-door talks are said to be going well. Correspondent Tom Banse has this public radio exclusive.

The Centralia Coal Plant is the single biggest emitter of climate pollution in the Northwest. So it can’t escape being a target, even though utilities consider its electricity crucial to the stability of the Western grid. In May, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed an executive order laying out her strategy to control greenhouse gases.

The governor’s chief of staff, Jay Manning, said coal plant owner TransAlta came to the table voluntarily. Neither the state nor Congress has passed limits on carbon dioxide. But Manning says the company can “see the handwriting on the wall.”

Manning: “They have been great to work with. We are making great progress in those discussions with them to the point that I think that it is a very real possibility that we will have an agreement by which they will convert, they will reduce their emissions 50 to 60 percent by 2025.”

Manning says the options to get a reduction that big are few. The parties have discussed capturing carbon dioxide before it goes up the stack and pumping it deep underground.

Manning: “That’s very difficult technologically. It’s unproven, so I think that’s unlikely.”

Another option is to substitute a renewable fuel such as wood chips for some of the coal. But converting to a modern natural gas-fired plant seems most likely. A TransAlta spokeswoman at the company’s Canadian headquarters declined to rank any option for the record.

Environmental campaigners are watching warily from the outside. Doug Howell directs the “Coal Free Northwest” campaign for the Sierra Club in Seattle. He agrees switching the region’s biggest coal plant to natural gas would be a big deal. But Howell wants faster action.

Howell: “2025 is much too long for a 50% reduction especially when you consider all of the other environmental problems going on at the plant and not being talked about.”

The Sierra Club wants public hearings on what Howell calls “the full scope” of pollution from the southwest Washington coal plant. The state has reached a separate tentative deal with owner TransAlta to reduce mercury and haze emissions from the Centralia smokestacks.

Copyright 2009 KUOW

On the web: TransAlta Centralia Generation, LLC

Was h. Governor Gregoire’s Executive Order initiating CO2 reduction talks

Sierra Club “Coal Free Northwest” campaign

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