Clean Air Act Violations

Louisiana Generating to Install Pollution Controls and Pay $14 Million In Penalties and Projects to Resolve Clean Air Act Violations / Marks 24th settlement under United States’ power plant enforcement initiative and largest clean air act settlement in Louisiana history

WASHINGTON – ‘’The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice announced today that Louisiana Generating, an electric generating company owned by NRG Energy, Inc., agreed to a settlement at its Big Cajun II coal-fired power plant in New Roads, Louisiana, which will result in the elimination of over 27,300 tons of harmful emissions per year. The settlement, lodged in federal court last week in Baton Rouge, will require Louisiana Generating to spend approximately $250 million to reduce air pollution and also requires the company to pay a civil fine of $3.5 million and spend $10.5 million on environmental mitigation projects’’.

‘’Louisiana Generating will achieve these reductions through a combination of new pollution controls, natural gas conversion, and annual emission caps at all three units at the Big Cajun II plant. Emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) will be reduced by approximately 20,000 tons and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by about 3,300 tons. Louisiana Generating will spend an estimated $250 million in capital costs to comply with the consent decree through the end of 2015. Louisiana Generating also has agreed to further air pollution reductions by 2025, which will reduce SO2 by at least an additional 4,000 tons each year’’.

Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said that “The Big Cajun II Power Plant is the largest source of illegal air pollution in Louisiana. This settlement will secure substantial reductions in harmful emissions from the plant which will have a beneficial impact on air quality for residents of Louisiana and downwind states, including low-income communities who have been historically overburdened with pollution. He added that “Louisiana Generating will install modern air pollution controls that will significantly reduce harmful emissions and also will perform environmental projects that will conserve energy.”

For More information please visit:

https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6424ac1caa800aab85257359003f5337/511ef4811d5e688485257abd005094b9!OpenDocument
Release Date: 11/21/2012

Categorised in: EPA