Green norms unmet, thermal plants get more time — and lower standards
Source: The Indian Express, Date: , 2017
The Indian Express, New Delhi, Feb 2017: Faced with the fact that almost none of the
over 400 thermal power plants across the country has complied with new emission
norms notified more than a year ago, the Government is learnt to have decided
to relax the December 2017 deadline — and even dilute the standards it had set.
It was in December 2015 that the Environment Ministry laid down, for the first
time, emission norms for Nitrogen and Sulphur oxides (NOx and SOx) for thermal
plants. It also fixed stricter limits for particulate matter (PM) emission and
consumption of water. Short of a year to the deadline, none of the units has
fully complied.