Edison Not Planning to Remodel Oxnard Plants : Environment: The utility says it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by phasing out fuel oil and encouraging conservation.

Southern California Edison’s two Ventura County power plants are not among those that the giant utility plans to remodel to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% throughout Southern California by the year 2010, company officials said Tuesday.

The utility’s two plants in Oxnard are relatively new and do not produce high levels of emissions as do older plants, officials said.

However, officials said carbon dioxide emissions in Ventura County will be slightly reduced by the mid-1990s when Edison phases out the use of fuel oil in favor of cleaner-burning natural gas.

The utility will also stress conservation with customers in the county by offering rebates on the purchase of energy-efficient light bulbs for further emission reductions, officials said.

“It’s a new way of doing things to factor the environment into the equation,” said Michael Hertel, Edison’s manager of environmental affairs.

Neither Edison nor Ventura County officials would estimate how much carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced in the county. But Edison officials said that by 2010, the new measures would reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Southern California by 13.2 million tons a year, a 20% reduction.

Carbon dioxide emissions do not contribute to smog but are a concern to environmentalists who contend that they contribute to the greenhouse effect in which the Earth is losing its protective ozone layer.

The utility announced plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions over the next 19 years through measures that include rebuilding older plants, replacing fossil fuels with natural gas, encouraging conservation, and increasing use of solar and geothermal energy. Some of the measures are not specifically designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions but have that beneficial effect, Hertel said.

The announcement came in the middle of a public relations campaign stressing Edison’s environmental program and two weeks before a crucial vote by the County Board of Supervisors on whether to impose a stringent new pollution regulation on the utility.

The regulation, known as Rule 59, would require Edison to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 88% at its Mandalay Bay and Ormond Beach power plants in Oxnard. By 1996, Edison would be required to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from the present six-year average of 3,083 tons a year to 370 tons a year.

The regulation would impose what would amount to daily caps on emissions during the smog season from May to September. Rule 59 would also prohibit the use of fuel oil during the smog season.

Nitrogen oxide emissions form ozone when mixed under sunlight with hydrocarbons from tailpipe emissions and other sources. Ozone is the primary constituent of smog. Ventura County air quality is below state and federal health standards for ozone pollution.

Edison representatives oppose the regulation as drafted. They say more studies are needed to prove that a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions will result in reduced air pollution.

Hertel said Edison officials hope to work with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District to revise the proposed regulation before supervisors vote June 4. But county officials believe that a compromise is unlikely.

“There is no more room for negotiation,” said William Mount, director of planning for the district. “They don’t feel such a high level of control should be required. It’s now up to the board to make the decision.”

Keith Duval, manager of the district’s rules development division, said that despite Edison’s desire to be seen as environmentally responsive, the utility would be unlikely to reduce pollution-causing emissions if not required to do so.

Duval lauded the company’s efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But he said Edison had 6,000 tons to 8,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions each year before 1982, when the state Air Resources Board adopted a regulation for Ventura County and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles.

That earlier version of Rule 59 required the utility to reduce emissions by 90%. Edison sued the state and the air quality districts, which resulted in a court order that requires the utility to produce no more than 4,460 tons a year.

Since then, Edison has stayed well under the annual limit, Duval said. And Edison points that out in its ad campaign.

In addition, Edison has issued what Duval called “veiled threats” to file a lawsuit if Rule 59 is adopted.

Patricia Baggerly, spokeswoman for the Environmental Coalition, said Tuesday that Edison could put its money to better use than a public relations campaign.

“They say they are protecting abalone,” she said, referring to one of Edison’s radio ads. “Now it’s time for them to protect human beings by getting this rule adopted as expeditiously as possible.”