India’s power pollution cap goal at least 6yrs too early

Bloomberg

India wanted to cap toxic emissions from power plants by December. It’s now discovering that target is at least 6 years from its reach. The nation’s power industry regulator says a countrywide roll out of equipment to lower sulfur dioxide emissions won’t be completed until 2023. And that’s only one of the the four types of pollutants plants must cap. The Central Electricity Authority has asked for the environment ministry’s December deadline to be extended, according to Ravindra Kumar Verma, chairman of the CEA, which is run by India’s power ministry.
“There’s no way the present deadline can be met,” Verma said. “We are very serious about it, but one has to consider that it’s a very complex process. We have to maintain power supplies to people, which is our biggest priority. I am hopeful that the environment ministry will appreciate the challenges.”
The emission upgrades, estimated by an industry lobby group last year to cost as much as 2.5 trillion rupees ($38.8 billion), have been delayed as power companies battle stressed finances and are under pressure to reduce costs amid an increasingly competitive electricity market. The caps are meant to ease emissions from coal plants, which cause tens of thousands of premature deaths annually, according to a report published in 2013 by Greenpeace and Conservation Action Trust.
A.B. Akolkar, member secretary at Central Pollution Control Board, a unit of the environment ministry, didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment. While Verma’s predecessor at the CEA, S.D. Dubey, warned in November that the target might be missed, the environment ministry as recently as March said the Dec. 2017 deadline is still valid. The environment ministry in Dec. 2015 set a two-year deadline for thermal power plants in India to cap emissions of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. The regulations followed public criticism over growing air pollution choking Indian cities, including capital New Delhi.