Environmental Law & Policy Center » Coal Plants

Guest Commentary in the Detroit Free Press: Cleaner air standards under attack in Congress

Kcoleman — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:33:12 +0000

Chicago Tribune: Coal plants dominate list of Chicago’s biggest polluters

Kcoleman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:53:21 +0000

According to this Jan. 22nd article in the Chicago Tribune: “Illinois’ largest single corporate polluter is Midwest Generation, the company that owns the Crawford and Fisk coal plants in Chicago and four more in the suburbs of Joliet, Romeoville and Waukegan and in Pekin in central Illinois. Burning coal from Wyoming and other Western states, the plants emitted more than 31 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2010, an amount equivalent to the tailpipe emissions of about 6 million cars.” Read the article.

Indianapolis Star: Is Bear Run coal mine putting Hoosiers at risk?

Kcoleman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:30:55 +0000

The Bear Run coal mine will soon become the largest — and least regulated — coal mine in the Eastern United States. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has decided to “rubber stamp” the mine with the same weak general permit that governs many small mines in other parts of the state, rather than fulfill its obligation to protect Hoosiers and aquatic life. As ELPC Staff Attorney Jessica Dexter tells the IndyStar, the idea that a mine the size of Bear Run is not a project IDEM thinks “could have a significant impact” is ludicrous. Read the article.

Chicago Tribune Editorial by Howard Learner: Mercury Pollution Reduction Standards Protect Children’s Health and the Great Lakes

Kcoleman — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:35:33 +0000

In the Chicago Tribune’s lead editorial on Dec. 28th, ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner discusses why the EPA’s recently announced federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standard is good for public health, the environment and the economy. Illinois enacted strong state standards in 2006 and has proven that it’s possible to control pollution from coal plants. The new federal rules will level the playing field among coal plants in all states. Read the editorial.

New Federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Will Protect Children’s Health and the Environment

Kcoleman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:02:23 +0000

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the first-ever federal standards to reduce mercury, arsenic, chromium and other toxic air pollutants from power plants. EPA estimates that these standards will prevent thousands of hospitalizations and emergency room visits and 17,000 premature deaths each year. Implementing the standards, which were called for in the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments and are now long overdue, creates a level playing field for the energy industry after more than 20 years of uncertainty and delays

“These standards mean power plants will invest in modern pollution controls, and that investment will create jobs, cleaner air and better public health,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Illinois adopted mercury pollution reduction standards in 2006 and modern control equipment has been installed at almost all coal plants in the state. The technology works, the lights have stayed on, mercury pollution has been reduced and children’s health is better protected. It’s time for the holdout utilities to stop crying wolf, stop stalling and clean up their pollution to protect children’s health and our rivers and lakes.”

“Illinois and other states have led the way and shown that these federal standards are reasonable and attainable,” said Learner. “With federal standards in place, all Americans will gain the benefits of better health and cleaner and safer water.”

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can harm fetal brain development, reducing children’s IQ and their ability to learn. According to EPA estimates, about 300,000 babies are born in the U.S. every year at risk of neurological damage because of mercury.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards set a 3-5 year timeline for power plant owners to install widely available modern technology to reduce mercury pollution by 91% and drastically reduce arsenic, chromium, acid gases and other toxic air pollutants which are known or suspected of causing cancer and other serious health effects. The new standards will create thousands of jobs around the country as power plant owners hire people to build, install and operate modern pollution control equipment needed to reduce mercury and other toxics from their plants.

U.S. EPA Announces Final Mercury & Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants

Kcoleman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:08:25 +0000

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a new Mercury and Air Toxics Standard that will greatly reduce the amount of mercury, acid gases and other toxic pollution emitted from coal plants. This landmark move by EPA will reinforce the important Clean Air Act public health standards enacted more than 20 years ago. Read the EPA’s announcement and final rule.

Chicago Tribune: State Line Coal Plant to Retire in 2012

Kcoleman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:39:53 +0000

The Chicago Tribune reports that one of the nation’s dirtiest coal plants will shut down in March 2012, rather than in 2014 as expected. The State Line coal plant sits on the shore of Lake Michigan in Hammond, IN, just across the border from Chicago. ELPC’s 2010 report on State Line found that soot and smog pollution from the plant cost the public over $77 million per year in health and related damages.

“Now that they’re on the path to shutting down, the question is how soon the site will be ready for redevelopment,” said ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner told the Tribune. “We have an opportunity to replace a dirty clunker with an extension of open space along Lake Michigan.”

Read the Chicago Tribune article here

ELPC Commends Midwest Senators for Upholding Clean Air Safeguards for Public Health

Kcoleman — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:21:36 +0000

Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Dick Durbin (IL), Al Franken (MN), Tim Johnson (SD), Mark Kirk (IL), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Herb Kohl (WI), Carl Levin (MI) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) stood up for clean air protections today and voted against an extraordinary resolution that would have blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from advancing standards to modernize coal plants and reduce dangerous pollution that drifts across state lines.

Midwest Democratic and Republican Senators were joined by a bipartisan majority of their colleagues in the vote to reject Senator Rand Paul’s S.J. Res. 27 by a vote of 56 to 41.

“We commend the Senators who voted today to protect public health, clean air and the Great Lakes from harmful pollution,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “It’s time for the owners of old, highly-polluting coal plants to invest in modern pollution control equipment. They should move to a level playing field with the companies that have already cleaned up their plants.”

The Cross State Air Pollution Standard will prevent up to 34,000 premature deaths, 400,000 asthma attacks, 15,000 heart attacks, and 19,000 hospital visits each year starting in 2014.

“Senators Brown, Durbin, Franken, Johnson , Kirk, Kohl, Levin and Stabenow recognized their constituents’ support for common-sense standards that will protect public health,” said Learner.

Poll Shows Chicagoans Want City to Reduce Pollution from Fisk and Crawford Coal Plants

Kcoleman — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:22:09 +0000

New poll results show that in voters in every part of Chicago support efforts by the City to reduce pollution from the Fisk and Crawford coal plants. 72% of Chicago voters said they would support a plan that reduces soot pollution from the coal plants by 90% and carbon dioxide pollution by 50%. Even after hearing arguments in opposition to, and in favor of stricter pollution standards, 64% of respondents said they would support City efforts to reduce pollution from Fisk and Crawford.

“This poll shows that people all across our city want cleaner air,” said Kim Wasserman, Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. “Northsiders and southsiders, men and women, Latino, black and white voters all want the City to clean up or shut down the Fisk and Crawford coal plants.”

The poll found that voters in every part of the City want to reduce coal plant pollution, but support was particularly strong in Latino neighborhoods and the South Side. The Fisk coal plant is located in Pilsen and the Crawford coal plant is located in Little Village. Both plants are owned by Midwest Generation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Edison International.

“Pollution from Fisk and Crawford affects everyone in Chicago,” said Maria Torres, an Organizer with Pilsen Alliance. “People in Pilsen and Little Village have been fighting coal plant pollution for years, but it’s clear the rest of the city understands that their health is at risk too.”

In separate question, 56% of those surveyed said that protecting the environment is good for the economy. “Chicagoans understand that we don’t need to choose between clean air and economic growth,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Reducing pollution will protect public health and make Chicago’s economy stronger.”

Researchers from the Clean Air Task Force found that pollution from Fisk and Crawford causes 42 premature deaths, 66 heart attacks and 720 asthma attacks each year. The National Research Council found that pollution from Fisk and Crawford costs the public over $120 million each year in health and related damages. One in four Chicagoans live within a three-mile radius of the smokestacks.

The poll was commissioned by ELPC and our allies in the Chicago Clean Power Coalition.

Ameren Announces IL Coal Plant Closings Again, Now Blaming Clean Air Act Rather than Market Forces

Kcoleman — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:48:26 +0000

On Oct 4, 2011, Ameren Corp. said it would close two power plants in Illinois by the end of the year. The company blamed the shut downs on the cost of complying with new clean air standards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ameren didn’t mention that they’d already announced plans to eliminate jobs at those plants in August 2009, years before the new EPA standards were even announced. In 2009, Ameren said changes in power markets and the economy were the cause. Ameren’s press release quotes CEO Chuck Naslund saying, “While we regret having to take this action, the challenges we face demand a new model for our merchant generation business. We must build a leaner, more streamlined organization that can more effectively compete in today’s difficult economy.”

Ameren now seeks to shift the blame to new EPA Clean Air Act standards. After making its rhetorical assault on the EPA’s clean air standards, Ameren then concedes that lower wholesale electricity prices in the Midwest Independent (Transmission) System Operator makes running and investing in the old plants less economically competitive.

“Ameren needs to play it straighter and quit blaming others for its own business decisions to shut down old coal plants instead of investing in modernizing them for a healthier future,” said ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner

These coal plants are among the nation’s oldest: the Meredosia plant began operations in 1948, and Hutsonville in 1953. In 2009, Ameren chose to lay off workers and to not invest in modern pollution control technology upgrades that would make their operations safer and healthier for people in Illinois, Missouri and the region. In 2006, Ameren agreed to settlement standards with the Illinois EPA and Illinois Pollution Control Board to either invest in modern pollution control equipment or shut down its coal plants in Illinois in the 2010 – 2017 timeframe.

“Come on, Ameren: It’s time to take responsibility for your own business decisions and stop blaming others,” said Learner.

Ameren’s 2009 Press Release
Ameren’s 2011 Announcement
Illinois Radio Network: Environmental Group Questions Power Plant Closings