DoE easing curbs on coal, gas-fired plants disconcerting

The Department of Environment in its new Environmental Conservation Rules has exempted small coal and gas power plants from Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), raising concerns among environmentalists. Under the Environmental Conservation Rules (ECR)-2023, gazetted on March 5, coal-fired power plants having a capacity of up to 50MW and gas-fired plants having a total of up to 100MW will no longer require EIA.
In the previous ECR of 1997, all power plants were placed under the red category, meaning there was a legal binding for all electricity producers to prepare an EIA and an Environmental Management Plan (EMP). With the introduction of the new ECR, plants will no longer be required to put such mechanisms in place to check pollution from their operations.
Under the previous ECR, any business placed under the red category must prepare a Terms of Reference for conducting an EIA, take stakeholders’ opinion in preparing the EIA, assess the quality of air, water, and soil of its location, and fill up the form-06 for a declaration that it will stick to its plan to check pollution. Coal combustion releases toxic substances like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, mercury, and fly ash which can significantly harm the human respiratory system, trigger acid rain, and cause mercury deposition in the soil. Bangladesh has already been enduring the worst air quality which is responsible for the deaths of 200,000 people yearly.
Environmentalists said the new ECR is more elaborate and more precise on some issues than the previous one. However, there are some major flaws in it. All power plants must be in the red category regardless of their production capacity. Hoping that power plants would comply with laws is surely unreasonable. The downgrading of certain power plants’ categories would lower the emission standard. The DoE itself is reducing its power by formulating such rules, which would harm its effort to conserve the environment. By weakening the DoE, the regime is weakening the environment of Bangladesh. We must resist the initiative to spoil our future.