Plan to clean up power plants could create pollution

Scientists group fears initiative is pushing emissions elsewhere

A regional effort by 10 states, including Massachusetts, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from area power plants could actually add to the pollution problem elsewhere, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge nonprofit.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, is a multistate coalition stretching from Maine to Maryland that requires 233 local power plants to purchase an allowance for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. The coalition auctioned off allowances for the first time in September, and is expected to release the results of a second auction today.

But John Rogers, an energy analyst with the scientists group, said power plants within the 10 states will become "marginally more expensive" because of limits put on carbon dioxide emissions. That could make it more attractive for utilities to purchase cheaper power from plants in states without carbon-pollution regulations, Rogers said, actually increasing emissions from power plants outside the region.

Though it supports the initiative, the Union of Concerned Scientists has reservations. Today, it is scheduled to publish a 44-page report, coauthored by Rogers, detailing its concerns about "outside" emissions undercutting the regional initiative's efforts. For example the report says, if power plants just beyond the borders of states participating in the initiative generated electricity at full capacity, the resulting emissions would be three times the amount of reductions the initiative ultimately hopes to achieve.

According to ISO-New England, which operates the power grid covering the six New England states, coal-fired plants last year accounted for 15.1 percent of the electricity produced in the region.

Jonathan E. Schrag, executive director of RGGI Inc., the initiative's nonprofit corporation, said member states - which also include Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont - are aware that utilities might seek to buy their power elsewhere and are monitoring the situation.

"As with any regional solution to a global issue there are problems around the edges," said Robert Keough, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The solution, he said, is a federal program that would standardize power plant emissions reductions nationwide.

"Increases in the amount of dirty imported power do have the ability to undermine RGGI," said Derek Murrow, director of policy analysis for Environment Northeast, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group. "I think it's something that we need to carefully watch."

But Murrow added that because Massachusetts doesn't border states that rely on coal-powered plants, it might not be as affected by an increase in nonregulated emissions as some other members of the coalition.

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.