Capitol Power Plant

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The Capitol Power Plant is a power plant that provides steam and cooled water for the United States Capitol and other buildings in the Capitol Complex.

History

Though it was originally built to supply the Capitol complex with electricity, the plant has not produced electricity for the Capitol since 1952. This duty is handled by the power grid which serves the rest of metropolitan Washington. The plant has been serving the Capitol since 1910 and is under the administration of the Architect of the Capitol. It was constructed under the terms of an act of Congress passed on April 28, 1904.

Fuel Usage

As of the spring of 2007, about 49 percent of the fuel burned at the plant was coal, 43 percent was natural gas, and the rest was oil. In 2006 the plant burned 17,108 tons of coal. This is about 1/100th of the amount of coal used annually by a typical 500 megawatt coal plant.

Emissions

Table 1: Summary of Point Source Emissions: District of Columbia in 2002 (Tons)

Facility	PM2.5	NOx	SO2	PM10
Capitol Power Plant	83	129	483	84
Pepco Benning Road Generating Station 15/16	15	253	1467	67
Pepco Buzzard Point Generating Station	5	340	390	5
GSA Central Heating Plant	12	66	8	12
10 Miscellaneous Sources	12	529	320	14
TOTAL	127	1,317	2,468	182
Share produced by Capitol Power Plant	65%	10%	20%	46%

Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) operates the 580 megawatt Benning station (units 15 and 16) and the 288 MW Buzzard Point station. Both Benning and Buzzard Point burn distillate fuel oil rather than coal.

Carbon dioxide

The Capitol Power Plant produces about 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Particulates

For a plant its size (roughly 1/100th the size of the typical 500 MW power plant), the the Capitol Power Plant produces a remarkably high quantity of the type of particulate matter (PM2.5) most closely associated with human health effects. As shown in Table 1, in 2002, the plant emitted a full 65 percent of the PM2.5 emitted in the District of Columbia.

Particle pollution, also called particulate matter or PM, is one of six "criteria pollutants" (PM, lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and ozone) regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. PM is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets in the air. When breathed in, these particles can reach the deepest regions of the lungs. Exposure to particle pollution is linked to a variety of significant health problems, ranging from aggravated asthma to premature death in people with heart and lung disease. Particle pollution also is the main cause of visibility impairment in the nation’s cities and national parks. Fine particles (PM2.5) are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller; and inhalable coarse particles (PM10) are smaller than 10 micrometers and larger than 2.5 micrometers.

In 2006, EPA tightened the 24-hour fine particle standard from 65 micrograms per cubic meter to 35 micrograms per cubic meter, while leaving the annual fine particle unchanged. EPA retained the annual fine particle standard at 15 micrograms per cubic meter. EPA retained the pre-existing 24-hour PM10 standard of 150 micrograms per cubic meter. Due to a lack of evidence linking health problems to long-term exposure to coarse particle pollution, the Agency revoke the annual PM10 standard.

Even before the EPA tightened the fine particular standard, Washington, D.C. was a "non-attainment" area.

In 2007, the Washington Post reported that during the 1990s dust collectors that trap soot, known as "baghouses," were added to the plant. However, the extremely high level of particulates for a plant of its size suggest that the Capitol Power Plant does not actually have any effective particulate control measures.

Sulfur dioxide

In 2002, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments reported that the plant was the second-largest fixed source of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide in Washington. A Pepco plant was the largest.

Congressional Action

Representative James Moran (Democrat, Virginia) has called the Capitol Power Plant the "armpit of the Capitol." Senators from coal mining states blocked a proposal in 2000 to use cleaner fuel for the plant. Senators Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) and Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia), both from coal mining states, used their influence as two of the Senate's most senior members to block this proposal. In May 2007, CNN reported that two companies, International Resources Inc. and the Kanawha Eagle mine, have a contract to supply a combined 40,000 tons of coal to the plant over the next two years. The companies have given a combined $26,300 to the McConnell and Byrd campaigns for the 2006 election. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has announced an initiative to make the Capitol carbon neutral. The power plant acts as a major obstacle to achieving this objective. In November 2007 Daniel Beard, the Chief Administrative Officer of the United States House of Representatives, announced that he will purchase $89,000 worth of carbon offsets for 30,000 tons of carbon emissions. Beard will make the purchase from the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Regulation

Under an arrangement with the Environmental Protection Agency, the plant reports its emissions to the city of Washington.

Neighborhood Response

Residents of the Capitol Hill neighborhood interviewed the Architect of the Capitol about the plant in 2006. They were informed that the only way to optimizing the plant’s efficiency was to rebuild it. This, however, requires an act of Congress.

Washington, D.C. Health Impacts

Based on a May 17, 2002 briefing before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by Harvard’s Dr. Jonathan Levy, the Clean Air Task Force published results of a study undertaken by a team of researchers from Harvard School of Public Health to, in part, estimate the health risks of five power plants in the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area. In the study, researchers estimated that over 250 premature deaths per year are associated with fine particulate matter air pollution from five power plants in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia. These plants are: Benning, Chalk Point, Dickerson, Possum Point and Potomac River. The Capitol Power Plant was not included in the study. Disadvantaged groups were found to be especially vulnerable to air pollution; while only 25 percent of the population studied has less than a high school education this group suffers approximately half of the mortality attributed to the plants. A separate study by the Clean Air Task Force ranked Washington, D.C. fifth among U.S. metropolitan areas in power plant health impacts. The study estimate that power plant emissions produce 515 annual deaths, 524 hospital admissions, and 851 heart attacks.

March 2, 2009 Protest

In December, 2008, a coalition of more than 20 organizations announced a non-violent action at the Capitol Power Plant to be held on March 2, 2009. Endorsers of the action include:

• 350.org
• Blue Ridge Earth First!
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Clean Water Action
• Coal River Mountain Watch
• CoalSwarm
• C02Kills.org
• Energy Justice Network
• Free The Planet! - Ohio State University
• Global Exchange
• Green Delaware
• Greenpeace
• Heartwood
• Kentuckians For the Commonwealth
• Mountain Justice
• Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
• Rainforest Action Network
• Rising Tide North America
• SEED Coalition -Sustainable Energy and Economic Development
• Student Environmental Action Coalition
• The Ruckus Society

Resources

• Greenpeace Climate Action - Mass Civil Disobedience
• Capital Climate Action - Mass Civil Disobedience

Related SourceWatch articles

• Green the Capitol Initiative
• James Harless
• International Industries
• International Resource Partners LP

External resources

• Unfluence
• Follow the Coal Money
• "Corporations and Unions," Federal Election Commission Campaign Guide, January 2007
• "Health Impacts of Air Pollution from Washington, D.C. Power Plants," Clean Air Task Force, May 2002
• "Lightfoot Partners Announces Acquisition of International Resources, LLC," press release, June 12, 2007

Wikipedia also has an article on Capitol Power Plant. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.