Operators of these oldest power plants will be required to install technology or switch to cleaner burning natural gas to control sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution, and the federal law requires the power plants to take practical steps to modernize their pollution controls.
The new limits are expected to reduce emissions of SO2 from the plants by about 95%, resulting in a reduction of approximately 61,000 tons of SO2 per year.
The three power plants emit greater than one-third of all the SO2 pollution from the hundreds of industrial and utility sources in Oklahoma.
EPA’s proposed Federal Implementation Plan will reduce emissions at the Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) plant near Muskogee, the OG&E Sooner plant in north central Oklahoma and the American Electric Power/Public Service of Oklahoma plant northeast of Tulsa.
These reductions are necessary to meet regional haze requirements under the Clean Air Act, and the plants will have three years to add SO2 scrubbers, switch to natural gas, or use a combination of these approaches.
