NRG’S Chief Executive Needs A Carrot And Stick
October 15th, 2007 by Maria Evans
Delaware’s worst polluter, NRG’s Indian River Power Plant in Millsboro.
The chief executive of NRG Energy, Inc., David Crane, penned an op-ed piece in the Washington Post yesterday that my colleague, Bill Colley, shared earlier in the post below. It’s certainly worth the read.
Mr. Crane is apparently very concerned about CO2 emissions, global warming and “the future:”
We are not running out of time; we have run out of time. Decisions we make today in the U.S. power industry will have a significant impact on the size of the problem we bequeath to our children…
Global warming should be at the top of Congress’s agenda — because action by this Congress will turn the tide of climate change around the world. Never before have we faced the prospect of fundamentally damaging our global ecosystem by the day-to-day activities of each and every one of us. A cap-and-trade system is the place to start. America must act now to protect our future.
But, oddly enough, he and his company seem hardly concerned about the direct health threat coming from an NRG facility right here in Sussex County. When the state of Delaware tried to curb NRG’s hazardous emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at the Indian River Power Plant, Delaware’s worst polluter, NRG responded by suing the state:
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) initiated emissions regulations requiring power plants in the state to clean up mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by 2009, with additional cleanup to be complete by 2012.
NRG officials filed a lawsuit stating the company could not meet the 2009 deadline because designing and engineering the wet scrubbers and emissions-controlling equipment would take too long.
Incidentally, when DNREC put out that regulation in 2006, they clearly stated that the deadline was perfectly reasonable:
They have relied upon accepted industry information that the pollution control equipment can be installed economically and in time. The EGUs should have planned for the installation of pollution control equipment long ago, but even with the December 11, 2006, effective date of this regulation, the Department has provided the EGUs with sufficient time for the pollution control equipment to be installed.
Really, if Mr. Crane was as concerned about “the problem that we bequeath to our children,” as he professes to be, he wouldn’t need a federal “carrot and stick” to “protect our future,” and NRG certainly wouldn’t sue to push back deadlines on curbing emissions that are “fundamentally damaging our global ecosystem” and clearly harmful to living things, even *gasp* “our children.”
Lots of companies are willing to sacrifice on their own if they really believe that their activities are harming the earth. Just look at News Corporation, the parent company of The Fox News Channel, they’re dedicated to becoming carbon neutral by 2010. Yes, it will cost them money, but they’re doing it anyway.
As for the federal “carrot and stick” that Mr. Crane requires before his company can do the right thing, I know precisely where the fed should send them.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:38 am
If you think there is money to be made in energy- look at how much money is being made- or going to made in the whole “GLOBAL WARMING” scam!
Al Gore gets $$$ either way! The American way.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I’ve been saying for a while now that all the emphasis on “carbon footprints” would only serve to take focus away from types of pollution that we KNOW are harmful to our health. With all the media attention to CO2, which is going to be EXTREMELY hard to reduce, much less eliminate from human activity, there will simply be less attention left over for mercury and the like.
Thank you Al Gore. Peace on you. Or something that sounds like that.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Wow Maria, awesome pictures!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
The only thing better than Maria’s awesome picture- is the fact that there is only one of them!– I would expect 16 different angles of the smokestacks- way to hold back maria!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
I am amazed that there are still a few around here that have yet to digest the reality of the global warming phenomenon, but here they are, right here before our very eyes. Moreover, it looks like there are some who refuse to recognize Al Gore’s contributions. I wonder if some of his critics have even seen “An Inconvenient Truth”, or are they just trying to demonize him to make a political point, as per the tactics of Karl Rove. Pathetic!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
amish I took so many pictures of that plant…you’re gonna love them all.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
“The IPCC also published results of simulations that predicted temperatures until 2100. The different simulations took into account the same natural processes but different patterns of human activity. For example, scenarios differed in the amounts of CO2 that would enter the atmosphere due to human activities.
The simulations showed that there can be no “quick fix” to the problem of global warming. Even if all emissions of greenhouse gases were to cease immediately, the temperature would continue to increase after 2100 because of the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.”
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_warming_worldbook.html
Alsothis video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3309910462407994295
I’ve watched the Al gore video and many more on the subject. Just because someone doesn’t automatically jump to the same conclusions that Al Gore would have us jump to doesn’t mean that research and study of the issue does not continue to go on. Such study may just find (I would say will likely find) that there is more to it than just one chemical compund (CO2) and that there may be new additional ways to deal with the problem sooner than 2100.
In the mean time, it will do absolutely no harm, and certainly some good to continue to focus on existing issues of air clean-up. Wind power, Solor power, and Nuclear power address BOTH concerns, so why not start there where almost everyone agrees rather than continue to engage in this stupid political debate! This debate sucks all the oxygen out f the room (pun intended) and leaves no room for actual science to take place.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Now you’ve returned to the rational world, macb.
No one doubts the reality of the global warming phenomena; that was my point, as your NASA riference very well confirms.
Granted, there is no agreement on the extent of man’s contributions, nor of the possible abatement strategies.
The correlation of global warming since the industrial revolution (1875) with the increase in atmospheric CO2 and the increase of fossil fuel use is striking to me.
Moreover, even a look at the Legates data and other critics show global warming to be occurring at a much more rapid pace since 1875 than global terperature fluctuations deduced from the ice core data going back about 4000 years.
Finally, isn’t it striking that the last ice age ended in 1875 coincident with the onset of the industrial revolution?
Incidentally, Al Gore acknowledged the role of the sun in global warming. But sun activity alone does not explain at all what we have measured since 1875.
I personally am convinced that Al Gore’s message from the science is convincing enough that we need to both continue research efforts and politically work on remediation to the best of current knowledge.
PS: Your first video reference sticks after playing out only 25% of the contents.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
[...] I’m sure we can totally trust companies to go by the honor system when it comes to reporting violations, after all, they always jump to comply with clean air regulations the state passes. (COUGH COUGH) [...]