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Only the approval of the federal Environmental Protection Agency is required before Portland General Electric can finalize plans to shut down its Boardman coal facility by 2020.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has been in contact with the EPA regarding PGE‘s plan and expects the EPA to approve it, according to PGE spokesman Steve Corson.

Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission, DEQ‘s rulemaking board, last week gave approval for PGE to install $75 million worth of interim pollution controls at the facility in advance of a 2020 closure.

The $75 million in controls to reduce mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions will affect customer rates over the next decade. According to the latest estimate, rates will increase 2.4 percent on average over the next ten years, Corson said. When new emissions controls are installed, those costs and how they will impact rates will have to be approved by Oregon’s Public Utility Commission.