PPL is carrying out plans to comply with a federal environmental regulation that was reinstated by the same federal appeals court that overturned it just a few months earlier.

A Dec. 23 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit allowed the Clean Air Interstate Rule to stand until the Environmental Protection Agency can fix it to address legal concerns identified in the court’s July 11 decision that struck down the rule.

CAIR is a regional program that mandates significant air pollution reductions from fossil fuel power plants in 28 eastern and midwestern states. It establishes an annual “cap and trade” program for emissions of nitrogen oxides starting in 2009. Previously, nitrogen oxides were capped only from May through September. It also requires generators to surrender twice as many sulfur dioxide allowances starting in 2010 than required under PPL prepared to comply with reinstated environmental regulation the 1990 Clean Air Act’s acid rain program.

PPL’s compliance strategy includes a $1.5 billion investment in scrubbers and other control equipment at the Montour and Brunner Island coal-fired power plants in
Pennsylvania. PPL also permanently shut down two coal-fired generating units at its Martins Creek plant in Pennsylvania as part of a 2003 agreement with environmental agencies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

To help meet the annual nitrogen oxides requirement, PPL will extend operation of the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system at its Montour plant to a year-round basis.

PPL supported CAIR’s emission reductions and the “cap-and-trade” approach to achieving them. After CAIR was overturned, Bill Spence, PPL’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, testified before a U.S. Senate committee about the need for legislation to codify the rule so generators would have clarity and certainty about requirements for improving air quality.