Utility Deregulation: How It Is Changing the Environmental Landscape in New England

摘要

Many have recognized the need to replace the existing 1950s-vintage, power plant fleet in the Northeast in order to achieve significant improvements in regional and national air quality. The announced new breed of clean, state-of-the-art, highly efficient merchant power plants are in a position to support this fleet replacement. This paper examines how deregulation of the energy market in the Northeast will affect the environment. In the past two years, numerous air permits have been issued for state-of-the-art merchant power plant facilities in the Northeast. This paper focuses on the permitted air quality, water usage, and noise levels at ten facilities in Massachusetts. As each of these facilities is permitted, the maximum allowable air emission, water usage, and noise levels, particularly in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are scrutinized in greater and greater detail in an attempt to minimize impacts as greatly as possible. As these new merchant power plants come on line and begin to displace power from older generating facilities, the environmental landscape in New England should change dramatically in a positive direction.