Power plants in Florida will have to further reduce the amount of emissions released into the air. The Environmental Regulation Commission has approved more stringent air quality standards from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP’s Sara Williams says the new regulations will build upon improvements already being made voluntarily.

“One of the big ones is TECO is the Tampa area – they have worked and reduced their emissions from coal fired power plants tremendously. Another good example is Gulf Power last year put in some state of the art technology to reduce their emissions at their largest coal-fired plant in Northwest Florida.”


If approved by the EPA, the new regulations would go into effect by 2010. They require a 55 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions per year; a 75 percent annual reduction in nitrogen oxides, and a 45 percent cut in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.