DTE Energy gets coal plant permit on eve of new regulations

Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment has granted DTE Energy an air permit for its Monroe coal plant — a move environmentalists say gives the utility company a pass on federal pollution rules set to go into effect in the new year.

On Wednesday, the DNRE’s air quality division said it approved a permit that allows DTE to burn more coal and also petroleum coke. A condition of the permit is that the company install pollution prevention technologies at the plant.

DTE’s Monroe facility — the fourth largest coal plant in the country — has four units which together generate 3,000 megawatts of power.

As part of the newly approved permit DTE will install wet flue gas desulphurization and selective catalytic reduction systems — on the two of its four units that don’t have them.

The emission reductions from the control project are expected to be approximately 49.2 million pounds per year of nitrogen oxides, 7.5 million pounds per year of particulate, 215.9 million pounds per year of sulfur dioxide, and 1,400 pounds per year of lead, state regulators said.

DTE spokesman John Austerberry said the company will have the pollution controls installed by late 2014.

DTE’s Monroe plant is known for its health-damaging pollution.

According to the non-profit Clean Air Task Force, DTE’s Monroe coal plant is responsible for more adverse health impacts than any other plant in the country — 278 deaths, 206 hospital admissions and 445 heart attacks.

In August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against DTE for violating the federal Clean Air Act by overhauling one of the units at its Monroe plant without pollution prevention technology. The EPA suit charges that in March of this year DTE began a months-long project to refurbish the boilers in use at the plant since the 70s.

The EPA says the boiler replacements amount to a major overhaul that cost about $65 million and was “unpredicted” in the life of the plant.

According to the EPA, the Clean Air Act requires companies that make major modifications to its plants to seek permits from the state and federal government and to install the best available control technology for limiting emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.

Monroe Unit 2 emitted 27,320 tons of sulfur dioxide, 8,205 tons of nitrogen oxide last year and is the largest individual source of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the state, according to the EPA. The agency said DTE has predicted that by 2013, Monroe unit 2 will emit 33,816 tons of SO2 and 14,494 tons of NOx.

“S02 and NOx can combine with other elements in the air to form particulate matter known as PM 2.5,” the EPA said. “These pollutants cause harm to human health and the environment once emitted into the air, including premature death, heart attacks and lung problems.”

The EPA is seeking the shutdown Unit 2 until pollution controls are installed and up to $37,500 a day in fines.

Shannon Fisk is an attorney for the National Resources Defense, which has joined EPA in the federal lawsuit against DTE.

[DTE’s plan to install pollution controls] doesn’t overcome the fact that they have been illegally polluting the air for decades and will be continuing to do so.” Fisk said. “It will take them till 2014 to get them in so there is going to be three more years of illegal pollution.”

“Installing these controls will reduce its impact, but it is still a coal plant, it’s still a dirty way of producing energy.”

Fisk pointed out the MDNRE issued DTE’s permit just 8 days after the end of the public comment period.

“MDNRE rushed this permit out in order to avoid the greenhouse gas rules that will go into effect on Jan. 1,” he said.

If the permit remained under consideration until January EPA’s new greenhouse gas permitting policy would have required an analysis of best available controls for reducing CO2 emissions, he said. This would have required DTE to look at the possibility of using natural gas for power or finding ways to improve efficiency.

“That is why they are sneaking it out right before Christmas,“ he said. “There are another operating permits for coal plants that MDNRE has been sitting on for months, yet they manage to find time to try and give DTE a pass.”

DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) provides power to 1.3 million Michigan residents.