Conservation Insider Bulletin, Mar. 14

Conservation Insider Bulletin
Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use
Editor: Dan Besse, cib@conservationcouncilnc.org

March 14, 2008

There are actions on water, energy, and air to examine, from Raleigh to Washington, this week in CIB:

--Administrative Watch: Graywater Use OK'd; Utilities Told to Limit Wasteful Payment Plan

--Nuclear Update: Ambush at NLC; The Water Gap; $17 Billion

--Washington Watch: EPA Announces New Ozone Standards

Administrative Watch: Graywater Use OK'd; Utilities Told to Limit Wasteful Payment Plan

Graywater Use OK'd: There's nothing like a little historic drought to push state officials into reconsidering rules that prohibit water use efficiency measures. Here's one: reuse of "gray water"—tap water that's been used for some types of washing purposes (not sewer or laundry water). Bath and dishwater, says Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources secretary Bill Ross, should be fine for trees and flowers. Officials anticipate "tweaking" state health rules to make that official sometime this spring. More systematic graywater reuse plans should be a part of longer-term state water use efficiency planning. (News & Observer, 3/12/08.)

Utilities Told to Limit Wasteful Payment Plan: Meanwhile, over at the N.C. Utilities Commission, Progress and Duke have been told to stop signing up new customers for their "balanced" or "fixed" payment plans. These plans permit customers to pay a flat monthly fee regardless of actual usage. About 170,000 households had signed up for the plans. Analysis showed that the Duke customers increased their electric use by almost 10 percent over three years; Progress customers, by 8.6 percent.

And this makes sense for our state at a time when we're trying to encourage energy efficiency? Not. The state Attorney General's office didn't think so either, and urged the Utilities Commission to abolish the programs altogether. The Commission split the difference (is that a pattern?) and permitted the utilities to maintain the plans for existing customers but not add new ones. (News & Observer, 3/14/08.)

Nuclear Update: Ambush at NLC; The Water Gap; $17 Billion

Ambush at NLC: Pro-nuclear power officials ran a surprise attempt to revise the National League of Cities' (NLC) policies on nuclear power at the NLC's annual Washington conference this week. The topic was not on the agenda for the NLC Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Policy & Advocacy Committee's spring policy discussion. However, with less than an hour to go in the scheduled discussion, a handful of officials launched a clearly coordinated attempt to return the issue to the committee's 2008 work plan. They wanted the NLC to move to an stance of aggressively supporting new nuclear power construction. The effort did not succeed for the time being. However, it displayed the nuclear industry's current full-court press to generate public backing for revival of the moribund nuclear construction program.

The Water Gap: The "nuclear revivalists" have yet to explain where they will find the massive amounts of cooling water needed for their proposed new units in the Carolinas. As previously noted in CIB, water supplies have already come close to critically low levels for both Duke's McGuire and Progress' Harris plants this winter. As the historic drought continues, next summer's likely cooling water gaps are enough to worry even ardent nuclear backers. And those are existing plants, not new ones.

$17 Billion: Of course, one need not look to new factors such as water shortages to be wary of new nuclear construction. Old-fashioned sticker shock can suffice. Progress Energy this week told Florida state regulators that its proposed two new nuclear units there would cost $17 billion—enough to raise the rates of its Florida customers by three to four percent a year for the next ten years. The reactors that Progress is planning to use in Florida are the same model that the company wants to install at its proposed new Harris unit. Oh boy!: Plants that make Cliffside, at a mere $3 billion, look cheap. (News & Observer, 3/11/08.)

Washington Watch: EPA Announces New Ozone Standards

In a decision guaranteed to make all sides unhappy, the Environmental Protection Agency this week announced new standards for ground-level ozone. Without going into the parts per million standard in sleep-inducing detail, CIB will note simply that the standards are stronger than the current rule, tougher than industry wanted, and weaker than environmental groups or public health advocates sought. Expect legal challenges all 'round. Environmental advocates will point out that EPA's own health experts recommended tougher limits.

Even if the new standards are not overturned or postponed by the courts, it will be some time before EPA formally designates "nonattainment" areas—local regions which do not meet the new limits and for which states must prepare cleanup plans. An early look at North Carolina monitoring records indicate that 14 counties would currently be found in violation. They're found in the mountains, Charlotte region, Triad, and Triangle. Mecklenburg and Rowan counties top the list, with measures that exceed even the current weaker standard.

By any measure, there's cleanup work to be done.