Decommissioning and remediation of coal- and oil-fired plants.
Bruce J. Baker (bbaker@nixonpeabody.com) and Jean H. McCreary (jmccreary@nixonpeabody.com) are partners with Nixon Peabody, and Libby Ford (lford@nixonpeabody.com) is a senior environmental health engineer with the firm.
A series of air pollution rules by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will impose significant new requirements on aging coal- and oil-fired power plants. Plants that haven’t yet invested in updated emissions control equipment will face potentially huge expenses to comply with these requirements. Some plants already have announced plans to close. Others might follow suit rather than retrofitting with air pollution control equipment or having to purchase costly emissions allowances. Nationally, few of the many 1940s-era plants have been demolished or redeveloped to date, providing little experience as to the legal (environmental and regulatory) or technical (construction and demolition) issues presented by closure or rehab. From the planning phases to the negotiation of the engineering and demolition contracts for closure and demolition, practical issues have emerged in today’s economic conditions as a major contracting consideration in this process.