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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new power plant approved for the San Francisco Bay area will be built with strict federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions, the first such project in the nation, regulators said.
Regulators called Calpine Corp.'s new plant in Hayward an important first step in federal efforts to use the existing federal Clean Air Act to help regulate the heat-trapping gases that contribute to climate change.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, acting on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, approved the permit for the plant, called Russell City Energy Center, on Wednesday. Construction is scheduled later this year.
"This permit is the most stringent the district has ever issued," Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the air district, said in a statement.
The 600-megawatt, natural gas-fired plant will be equipped with the newest pollution controls and will produce 50 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the most advanced coal-fired plants, Calpine said.
It also is designed to produce 25 percent fewer emissions than current state standards.
Since its inception in 1970, the Clean Air Act has limited emissions from smokestacks and power plants by requiring industry to obtain clean air permits. This process forced plant owners to apply for new permits when building or upgrading power plants, requiring companies to implement the best available pollution controls.
The Calpine project's permit is significant, regulators said, because these same federal clean air permits can now be used to deal with greenhouse gas emissions.
California currently has the nation's most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals. A third of the state's power must come from renewable sources by 2020. Emissions must be cut by 15 percent from current levels.
The Hayward plant's approval was being used by federal environmental regulators in Washington as an example of how existing laws can be used to help regulate pollutants that contribute to climate change.
"The Calpine permit is a classic example of how the Clean Air Act can be used to limit greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging clean energy jobs," Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said in an e-mail. "There's no reason why this sort of thing can't be replicated elsewhere."