Overpolluting power companies will have to compensate with improved emission controls and pay fees that will be used to cut pollutants from other sources. The board expects the state's major power plants to be about a third cleaner this summer than they were a year ago. But they'll pollute more because they'll run more often to compensate for the loss of electricity that California normally would have imported from out of state. A drop in hydroelectric power from the Pacific Northwest and the faltering credit of investor-owned utilities have been blamed for the shortfall. The increases might not add noticeably to hazy skylines because power plants have been responsible for only about 3 percent of the oxides of nitrogen in the state's air.
Vehicles account for more than half.
But the emissions are a setback for state and regional agencies that have prided themselves on blazing a pollution-fighting trail for the nation. Oxides of nitrogen are a key component of smog, which causes and aggravates breathing problems. Diesel engines, a major producer of that pollutant and toxic soot, are increasingly being enlisted as stopgap power-providers amid forecasts of a summer filled with temporary outages. But there likely are hundreds more generators popping up. Applications are required only when a generator would be near a school or power plant.