The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) last week approved a State Implementation Plan (SIP) for air quality improvement, which includes wind energy purchases by Montgomery County as a control measure to reduce dangerous ground-level ozone pollution caused by fossil-fuel generation. The MWCOG is comprises of representatives from local governments and State agencies in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
This precedent-setting action was spurred by Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), a national non-profit organization committed to the development and expansion of renewable energy markets. ERT, working with Resource Systems Group, issued an "Emissions Avoided" report analyzing the fossil fuel emissions that would be avoided or "displaced" by wind energy production in the region. ERT found that every Megawatt-hour of wind power generated by a proposed wind plant in western Maryland would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 5.72 pounds. Nitrogen oxide, when mixed with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight, is a key ingredient in ground level ozone.
Montgomery County, by purchasing five percent of its energy requirements from wind energy beginning in July 2004, will become the first municipality in the region to purchase clean, renewable energy. In addition to reductions in ozone-causing nitrogen oxides, this wind energy purchase will displace environmentally harmful emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas that leads to climate change.
"The great thing about this plan" notes Alden Hathaway, Director of Green Power Programs at ERT, "is that a marker has been laid in the Mid-Atlantic region that purchases of renewable energy by local governments provide significant value in terms of local air quality benefits."
The MWCOG SIP, developed to reduce ozone pollution under the Clean Air Act, will be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no later than March 1. If approved by the EPA, MWCOG's SIP will represent the first time in the U.S. that clean, renewable power purchases by a municipality will be credited for reducing air emissions under a regional air quality plan. Traditionally, the EPA has limited its approval for stationary source emission reduction measures to the installation of end-of-the-pipe controls, such as scrubbers on smokestacks.
Montgomery County and the Maryland Department of Environment have been working with other jurisdictions to encourage them to purchase wind energy to improve the health and quality of life for residents in the Washington metropolitan region. Montgomery County executive Douglas M. Duncan noted that the County's action under the plan "will not only benefit the quality of the air we breathe, but also improve the water quality. And, by using a more diverse energy source we are moving towards the goal of becoming a more sustainable community."
