Victorian EPA Coal Licence Review “Fail”

Image: Stephen Edmonds, CC BY-SA 2.0

After spending more than 3 years reviewing operating conditions for coal power plants, Victoria’s  Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is finally done – and its decisions have been found lacking.

The licence review involved Victoria’s three brown coal-fired clunkers: Yallourn, Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B. The process also included public consultation, which resulted in 493 submissions from the community.

What The EPA Says

The EPA states the new conditions aim to protect the local environment and provide greater transparency on brown coal fired power station emissions. Among the changes to licencing:

• Limits for mercury, fine particles (PM2.5) and coarse particles (PM10) for each power station.
• Air discharge limits for most parameters reduced for all three.
• Yallourn must install a continuous emissions monitoring system with the capability of monitoring oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide in real time.
• Monitoring of extremely hazardous carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, highly toxic or highly persistent substances that may threaten the beneficial uses of the air environment under licence added.
• Exemption hours for start-ups and shutdowns varied.
• Yallourn and Loy Yang A had licencing changes requiring rehabilitation plans for coal ash dumps and implementation of mine dust controls.
• Wastewater discharge limits for most parameters reduced
• The power stations are required to continually share emissions data, which will be posted on their associated websites.

EPA Executive Director of Regulatory Standards, Assessments and Permissioning Tim Eaton stated:

“Through our licence review we’re reduced emission limits and are making sure that the community has the best information about the emissions coming from power stations in a timely matter. The health of the local community and the environment is EPA’s first priority, and these additional requirements will ensure both remain protected.”

Environment Victoria: “An Outrageous Failure”

While the EPA isn’t done yet as it will further amend all licences to ensure consistency with the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018 (the Act) starting in July this year, Environment Victoria was not impressed; calling the EPA’s effort a “disgrace”.

“It completely fails on climate AND toxic pollution. There are no limits on greenhouse gas pollution and the review has only fiddled around the edges on toxic air pollution.”

The organisation says coal burning power stations account for 40% of Victoria’s carbon emissions and the EPA was “missing in action on the biggest environmental threat of our time”.

Environment Victoria is considering its legal options to challenge what it says is an outrageous failure and is calling on the state’s Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio to step in and address the situation.

The Victorian Greens likewise slammed the lack of carbon emissions restrictions, and also said the mercury ‘cap’ is so high it won’t actually reduce mercury pollution. It states the EPA’s decision wasn’t just a blow for the climate, but also the Latrobe Valley community living with the impacts of local coal fired electricity generation.

While the results of the EPA’s licence review may be disappointing, one of these power stations could have all its emissions reduced to zero in the not-too-distant future.

Recent analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Green Energy Markets indicates Yallourn W could be under significant financial stress by 2025 due to the huge amount of wind and solar energy supply expected to be added to the National Electricity Market (NEM) over the next few years. Yallourn W is currently scheduled to commencing closing in 2029, with completion in 2032.

However, Loy Yang A isn’t scheduled to close until 2046 and in the case of Loy Yang B, 2048.

On a related note, last week Secretary-General Guterres urged OECD countries to commit to phasing out coal power by 2030.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/victoria-coal-pollution-mb1908/