Some have argued for a departure from a regional approach and urged Maine to go it alone. They are pressuring the BEP to adopt rules that would hold Maine s largest electric generating plant to a much more restrictive standard than the rest of the region. The rule threatens to isolate Maine and will impact only Wyman Station, Maine s largest power plant, located in Yarmouth. Not only is this plant located downwind of where most of our ozone problems exist, but scientific studies have shown that this plant is not having any measurable impact on ozone nonattainment in Maine. After years of working with other Northeastern states on a coordinated approach to improving air quality, Maine must not discard one of the most effective pollution reduction techniques ever developed emissions trading.
Trading is a successful and widely used practice to improve air quality.
For a state like ours, where 90 percent of NOx in Maine is produced outside our borders, prohibiting emissions trading would doom meaningful efforts to improve air quality. It would place Maine companies in a competitive disadvantage and could threaten the reliability of the New England power generation network. While it s true that several new gas-fired plants are under construction, these plants won t eliminate the need for the power and fuel diversity that Wyman Station provides to the region. The health of our economy depends upon a diverse energy supply. Eliminating cap and trade from the new NOx rule is a high-stakes gambit.