Firm Won’t Get Deal on Rates: It Wanted Break on Power for Cutting Mercury Emissions

By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 12–A Wood County chemical company that releases more mercury into the environment than any other company in Wisconsin was dealt a setback Thursday in its bid to implement a plan that would reduce the state’s annual mercury emissions by 25%. State regulators denied a special electric rate for ERCO Worldwide of Port Edwards, an 85-employee supplier to the paper industry. Under the proposal, ERCO Worldwide planned to invest $85 million to convert to a new manufacturing process that would eliminate the use of mercury, a pollutant that is responsible for fishing advisories in Wisconsin lakes. The three-member Public Service Commission, in a unanimous decision, said the deal wasn’t legal under Wisconsin law, which bars special electric rates for individual businesses. In some cases, the Legislature has given the commission authority to provide flexible rates to telephone and natural gas customers — but not to electric customers, commission Chairman Dan Ebert said. “This may spark a debate in the Legislature to give this commission more flexibility in its tariffs, but the law is what it is,” Commissioner Robert “Bert” Garvin said. “We can’t make it up out here.” Approval of the commission was the last hurdle ERCO Worldwide, formerly known as Vulcan Chemical, needed to move forward on changing its manufacturing process by 2009. That change had won the support of the state Department of Natural Resources as well as George Meyer, the former Department of Natural Resources secretary who now is executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. Mercury released into the air eventually settles on land and water. In water, bacteria convert mercury to a more toxic form, methyl mercury, which accumulates in fish. This has long raised health concerns for people who eat fish. In 2001, the state DNR broadened its fish consumption advisory from 341 lakes to all of the more than 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin. Under ERCO’s proposal, the typical residential customer of Madison-based Wisconsin Power & Light Co. would have seen an increase of about 13 cents a month to help ensure ERCO of stability in its electricity prices over the coming decade. ERCO plant manager Steve Hieger said he was “very disappointed.”"We’re going to regroup and try and turn over every stone possible to see if there’s a way to move this project forward,” he said. “Time is not our friend right now.” The company faces a December deadline from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce its mercury emissions by 30 to 40 pounds a year and must start taking steps toward installing controls to implement that reduction — at a cost of $5 million. If the company were to change its entire manufacturing process, a total of 1,300 pounds a year of mercury would no longer be released into the environment. Asked if the Legislature could enact a bill to allow a flexible electric rate such as the one it proposed, Hieger said he was skeptical lawmakers could move quickly enough to help ERCO, given the deadlines. “Our time frame is months, and the Legislature works in much longer time spans than that,” he said. The Citizens’ Utility Board, a customer group representing residential and small-business customers, said the commission made the right call that Wisconsin’s 100-year-old utility law bars special rates for individual customers. Approving the deal would have “set a bad precedent that would encourage other companies to look for handouts from ratepayers,” said Charlie Higley, CUB executive director. Eric Uram, representing the group Mercury-Free Wisconsin, urged ERCO to find a way to keep its more ambitious mercury-reduction plan alive. “It just puts more of the fiscal responsibility on the company to invest in clean technology,” he said. “Other companies in the country and around the world have installed and implemented mercury-free technology without any public assistance.” Buy a link here

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.