The Adirondack Council

News Release

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John F. Sheehan
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Released, Tuesday, September 30, 2003

RUTLAND, Vt. -- The Central Vermont Public Service Corp. has sold the rights to more than 12,000 tons of sulfur-dioxide pollution to a Manhattan brokerage firm. The firm is free to sell the pollution rights to any buyer, including coal-fired power plants in the Midwest that cause acid rain in New England.

"I can't believe that Vermonters would want to punish themselves this way," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "These pollution rights can be bought by any power company. If they are bought and used at any of the 400-plus coal-fired power plants that cause acid rain in the Northeast, they will come back to us as acid rain. By us, I mean Vermont, the Adirondacks, and the entire Northeast.

"What the power company did was perfectly legal, but not very wise," Houseal said. "CVPSC reaped about $2 million in the sale. Vermonters will reap increased lung disease, decreased visibility and more dead trees and fish.

"Senator James Jeffords of Vermont is a key member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, as is Senator Hillary Clinton of New York," Houseal said. "We need them to take action to protect us from acid rain -- this year, before it's too late. We must urge them not to come home empty-handed."

Houseal said New York had attempted to stop its own power companies from making irresponsible trades through a state law that penalized companies whose allowances were used by upwind polluters. But a federal appeals court declared the new state law to be a violation of federal interstate commerce laws. The court ruled that individual states cannot interfere with the federal pollution scheme. Only an act of Congress can limit the trading of pollution, the court said.

The market rate of federal sulfur dioxide rights is roughly $175 per ton. Central Vermont Public Service sold 12,000 on September 25 to the Wall Street brokerage firm Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is free to sell them to anyone. Each pollution right carries a serial number and can be tracked from the date it is issued until the date it is used.

"Vermont is now stuck in the same Catch 22 that New Yorkers are trapped in," Houseal said. "New York and Vermont were the first states to pass comprehensive clean air legislation and enforce it. Consequently, our power plants are now much cleaner than federal law requires. The cleaner our plants become, the more federal pollution rights they have leftover at the end of each year.

"But if those rights are sold to the Midwest," he explained, "much of our local investment in clean air is rendered useless. Those same tons of pollution we avoided emitting here are coming out of a smokestack upwind of us and dropping acid rain on our heads. And there is nothing New York and Vermont, acting alone, can do about it."

Other New England upwind pollution transfers since June:

• Maine: The William F. Wyman power plant sold 130,132 tons worth on Sept. 25 to Morgan Stanley, a Wall Street broker.
• Connecticut: The Devon, Montville and Norwalk Harbor Station plants sold 38,671 tons worth on June 27 to two coal-fired power plants in Western New York that cause acid rain in the Adirondacks and New England.
• Massachusetts: the Cleary Flood power plant sold 12,500 tons worth in July to Pennsylvania Power & Light and Dominion Power of Virginia. Both companies' power plants cause acid rain in the Adirondacks and New England.New Hampshire: No activity since June.

"The only solution is Congressional action," Houseal said. "Without changes to the Clean Air Act to reduce the number of pollution allowances issued each year, the problems of acid rain will only get worse," he said.

"What we need, right now, is for our Congressional delegations and Senators to pull together to pass effective acid rain legislation that cuts the number of available pollution rights by 70 percent or more," Houseal said. "Then, no power company in the United States would have enough leftovers to create havoc with them."

Vermont Senator James Jeffords is the sponsor of a bill that would require such cuts in pollutants that cause both acid rain and global warming. New York Congressmen John McHugh and John Sweeney have sponsored a similar bill focused solely on acid rain. In fact, every clean air bill currently under consideration by Congress would require cuts of 70 percent or more.

"It's up to us to persuade Congress that the time has come to act," Houseal said. "It's time for our states to work together to stop this nonsense before it destroys our ecosystems and economies."

"It appears that Central Vermont Public Service is one of several New England companies that have sold large numbers of pollution rights to upwind polluters since the New York law was overturned," Houseal said. "While our law was in effect, trading from the Northeast to the Midwest slowed to a virtual standstill. Now, it's open season again. And the smoking muzzles are pointed at us."

The Adirondack Council is dedicated to ensuring the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Council is an 18,000-member, privately-funded, not-for- profit organization with offices in Elizabethtown and Albany, New York.