Seabrook nuke plant seeks access to clean air credits

CONCORD, N.H. – Rewarding the Seabrook nuclear plant for not producing nitrogen oxide would put the plant on equal footing with other generators that don’t emit the air pollutant, a plant spokesman said Tuesday.

But critics told a Department of Environmental Service committee the plan perverts a program designed to cut pollution, and subsidizes the nuclear plant at the expense of newer energy sources and efficiency programs.

The committee’s public hearing will be reconvened Feb. 28 for those who couldn’t attend Tuesday because of a snowstorm. A written comment deadline was moved from Feb. 28 to March 10.

The plant, recently acquired by a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light, produces 53 percent of the state’s electricity. It is asking for credits designed for fossil fuel-burning power plants that cut smokestack emissions.

Plant owners that reduce pollution earn credits they can trade or sell to operators of dirtier plants.

New program rules proposed by the department would reduce the number of credits by 20 percent in 2005 to comply with a plan proposed by the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Association. The rules also would set aside 20 percent of the credits to be auctioned, saved or allocated to nonemitting power sources.

Seabrook’s owners want some of the set-aside credits, which they would earn through a planned 5 percent increase in the plant’s electricity capacity in 2005.

It is not clear how much the credits are worth. Some have said they could be sold for as much as $1 million a year. Others have suggested they could be used to make operation more expensive for competitors by cornering the market on credits.