Our Environmental Affairs organization oversees the administration of corporate environmental compliance programs.
Environmental Compliance
The Environmental Affairs departmental activities include regulatory interpretation, permitting, report submittal, protocol development and general corporate environmental compliance.
CenterPoint Energy is committed to complying with environmental laws and regulations and working with regulatory agencies as part of our overall compliance activities. Environmental regulations are continually changing and require continuous review to determine applicability to our facilities. Our primary environmental focus areas include compliance, air quality, emissions reductions, biodiversity and land use, waste and recycling, and water management.
Environmental Affairs partners with operational business units to provide environmental training and updates in a variety of ways, including targeted employee training initiatives across our service territory and project collaboration.
Oversight
Our Vice President of Corporate Sustainability is responsible for environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy, strategy and reporting – including the management of climate-related risks – and provides regular reports on environmental compliance, sustainability and other related matters to the Governance, Environmental and Sustainability Committee of the Board.
Improving Local Air Quality
By 2035, we expect our operations will produce less carbon-related nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), mercury (Hg) and particulate matter (PM) that are produced as a result of burning coal to produce electricity. These emissions, if not controlled, can negatively impact local air quality. Since 2001, CenterPoint Energy has invested more than $500 million in emissions control equipment to capture these pollutants and directly improve local air quality.
- Our entire electric generation fleet is 100% scrubbed for sulfur dioxide and 90% controlled for nitrogen oxide. We are working to reduce mercury emissions to meet reduction requirements.
- All units in our system are equipped with an electrostatic precipitator or a fabric filter that can remove particulate matter at an average of 99% efficiency.
- Enhancements to our system to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) began in 2014 with a focus on reducing sulfur trioxide and mercury emissions, as well as mercury reductions in wastewater.