Electric utility Santee Cooper continued its $600,000, Rawle-Murdy-led push last week to convince South Carolina citizens the utility is green, and they got some help from The Post and Courier in the process. “Santee Cooper gets even greener” read the headline last Tuesday, reporting that “in a bid to replace coal,” the company has committed to purchasing an additional one percent of their power from sources that burn yard waste and natural materials. That headline sounds to me like Santee Cooper is already a “green” company.
“I think our people are talking to a whole lot of people,” said Santee Cooper spokesman Mollie Gore, in reference to the lack of a deadline or contracts signed to bring that change about. The following day, the company submitted its plan to DHEC on how its proposed new coal plant near Florence would meet the Clean Air Act, which includes reducing annual mercury output from 69 to 57 pounds per year. It subsequently introduced an education initiative titled “The Real Story on Mercury,” which downplays the impact of U.S. coal plants on mercury emissions, instead blaming Chinese plants and volcanoes.
“Just last week, a similarly sized plant (in Virginia) was given a permit to emit only 4 pounds of mercury, or ten times less than what Santee Cooper says is the ‘maximum’ it can do,” says Blan Holman, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, pointing out that the company is already the largest mercury polluter in S.C. “We don’t need any more mercury in the fish that South Carolinians catch and eat. No amount of public relations lipstick will make this pig pretty.”
Here’s info from the South Carolina Business Journal on next week’s public meeting …
COLUMBIA — A public meeting has been set to discuss the air quality application for the proposed Santee Cooper power plant.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m., July 22, at Hannah-Pamplico High School in Florence County said the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC’s Bureau of Air Quality received an application for a case-by-case Maximum Achievable Control Technology air permit by Santee Cooper. The public meeting is being held for local citizens and other interested persons to ask questions and offer comments on the proposed coal-fired plant to be located near Kingsburg and Pamplico.
At the meeting, information on the application and DHEC’s air permitting process will be provided and the public will be able to ask questions and provide comments on the application.
The U.S. Court of Appeals eliminated the federal Clean Air Mercury Rule for power plants. Until a new mercury regulation is issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, each new power plant will have to propose emission limits to control hazardous air pollutants, including mercury.
DHEC is required to review the proposed limits and application and make a MACT determination.
