Five Questions: George Thullesen

George Thullesen started the new year in a newly created position at Joplin-based Empire District Electric Co. As director of environmental policy, he coordinates environmental planning and policy, and monitors federal, state and local legislation that could impact the company. Thullesen has worked at Empire for more than 30 years, most recently as director of safety and environmental services. He is also an executive board member of the Regulatory Environmental Group for Missouri.

Q: Why did Empire District Electric Co. create the director of environmental policy position?
A: In the last 10 or 12 years, there’s been a lot of environmental regulation and legislation that’s come forward. In the last 18 months, there’s been more than the whole previous 10 or 12 years before. It’s overwhelming.

Q: What is an example of a recent regulation?
A: The Clean Air Interstate Rule, (which) regulates emissions of (sulfur dioxide) and also oxides and nitrogen from power plants. … We installed a selective catalytic reduction system at our Asbury power plant. This was to control the emission of oxides in nitrogen. It was an expensive project, a little more than $30 million, strictly for air pollution control – it doesn’t generate any electricity. That’s probably No. 1 now. We’re constantly looking at our emissions, looking at the regulations and the proposed regulations and making decisions on what we need to. That part of planning is important, because a project from concept to finish usually takes three to five years.

Q: How much of your job will be related to the two cap-and-trade bills currently working through Congress?
A: At this time, very little. We don’t know anything about cap and trade, and we don’t know for sure that it’s coming. ... There are other options out there aside from cap and trade. There’s carbon tax, there’s cap and dividend, for which legislation has been introduced. We just don’t know what it’s going to be, what form it’s going to take, what devil is in the details. At this time, there will be a very small part of my job involved in that until we have something more definitive.

Q: Is Empire District Electric preparing now for that legislation to pass?
A: We are not doing anything right now directly to prepare for that. We are doing some good stewardship that we have done in the past. If you’re in the electric utility industry, then the environment has been a big part of what you address. We have some projects such as energy efficiency, a change the light program, where we change out to the low-wattage bulbs. … We also have some wind energy right now. We utilize it, but we sell all the attributes.

Q: With three children and five grandchildren, do your family experiences cause you to think differently about environmental issues?
A: My wife (and I) have recycled since we have been married, and that was 37 years ago. … The Boy Scouts didn’t have a paper drive, and our newspapers piled up in the garage until they did. She took all of our glass bottles in, and about once every six months, she makes a trip with all of the aluminum cans and the scrap metal – we have a small farm – from off the farm. So no, I don’t think so. I was born and raised on Spring River in the country, and I’ve enjoyed wildlife and the environment. I believe we should be good stewards of our environment. It’s our responsibility. We’ve been placed here to have that responsibility to take care of it for our children and our grandchildren.