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Power plants: Curbing emissions
What level of air pollution control do citizens need and deserve — and can the country afford it?
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What level of air pollution control do citizens need and deserve — and can the country afford it? (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Environment and Forestry Ministry is contemplating questions that are extremely important for the health and well-being of all Indonesians.
What level of air pollution control do citizens need and deserve — and can the country afford it?
After studying the subject over 30 years, my first observation is that economic development and pollution reduction can and do occur as worker productivity rises and as a country becomes more attractive for foreign investment.
Second, with each new step taken to reduce pollution some in industry predict economic disaster. This has occurred hundreds of times in the United States over the past 50 years, but the predicted economic crash never occurred.
Third, adding controls at coalfired power plants is one of the two most effective ways to reduce pollution and improve public health — the other is to reduce sulfur in fuels. Because of the economies of scale, power plants provide the most cost-effective pollution reduction opportunity on a cost-per-ton basis. Their tall stacks and the chemistry of very fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mercury formation lead to plumes that can affect areas hundreds of kilometers downstream.
Regulating and monitoring a few dozen very large sources is also far simpler and efficient from a regulatory perspective than attempting to police tens of thousands of small emitters or imposing intrusive requirements on individuals. Since it sets the tariff for electricity, the government can ensure that the cost of these controls is fair and affordable.
Importantly, electricity cannot be imported into Indonesia, so there is no risk that the increase in the cost of electricity would result in job losses as might be argued in the case of controls in other industries.
