ELPC is pleased that EPA announced this new standard that will protect public health, the environment and the economy together. Join us in thanking the EPA by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. ELPC’s online system will help you do it.

This landmark move by EPA will reinforce the important Clean Air Act public health standards enacted more than 20 years ago. It will protect public health and the Great Lakes ecosystem. It will create good jobs for American workers. And it will avoid billions of dollars in health costs.

Notwithstanding these public health, environmental and economic benefits, the new EPA standard is already under attack from certain coal plant owners and members of Congress. They claim – erroneously – that this will cause our lights to go out. This is simply not true. Industry has known for decades that these standards were coming. Many utilities took early steps to convert to natural gas, which burns cleaner and produces less pollution, or alter construction plans for coal plants with oudated technology.

Please express your support for the new EPA standard that will protect children’s health, the Great Lakes and the environment by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that passes through the placenta and poisons fetal brain development. It also has been linked to harming children’s developing brains, including effects on memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills.

Coal-fired power plants emit approximately half of atmospheric mercury, with natural sources such as volcanoes responsible for the remainder. An estimated two-thirds of human-generated mercury comes from stationary combustion, mostly of coal.  There are about 1,100 coal-fired units and about 500 power plants in this country. About half of these units are more than 40 years old, and about three-quarters of them are more than 30 years old. Of these 1,100 units, 44% do not use pollution controls such as scrubbers or catalysts to limit emissions, and they pour unlimited amounts of mercury, lead, arsenic and acid gases into our air.

ELPC Report: Reducing Mercury Pollution in Illinois

In June 2011, ELPC released this report about why federal air toxics safeguards are needed to protect public health. Download a free copy today!

The Chicago Tribune reported on Sunday, September 19th about one of the nation’s dirtiest coal plants that sits just across the state line from Chicago: State Line Power Station. As ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner comments in the piece, “It’s a highly polluting plant that has existed for years in a sort of never-never land.”  The article points out that the power plant is starting to get noticed as a push is on to force the plant to clean up.

Read the full article.

The lawsuit relates to opacity violations.  Opacity is a measurement of the amount of light blocked by particulate matter coming from smokestacks. Particulate matter is fine dust and soot that stays close to the plant and concentrates negative air quality and health effects in nearby communities leading to respiratory illnesses and premature deaths. The USEPA has cited Midwest Generation’s coal plants for numerous air pollution-related violations.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found that the Fisk and Crawford plants in Chicago are responsible for 41 premature deaths, 550 emergency room visits and 2800 asthma attacks annually. Midwest Generation owns coal plants in Chicago, Waukegan, Joliet, Romeoville and Pekin, Illinois.

Read ELPC’s Press Release

Read Coverage in the Joliet Herald News

ELPC has worked with citizen groups to oppose the new plants because they would be unnecessary, expensive and would create huge amounts of pollution that contributes to global warming and threatens human health.

 As ELPC Senior Attorney Faith Bugel told the Detroit News, “This report shows that clean energy can power Michigan’s future. Moving away from outdated coal power will build our economy and protect our environment.”

Last year, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm ordered the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to examine whether the state’s energy needs could be met by renewable sources and energy efficiency before granting Clean Air Act permits for any new coal plants. A final decision on whether to grant Clean Air Act permits to Wolverine and Consumers Energy rests with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which promises a ruling by the end of this year.

Read Coverage in the Detroit News

ELPC has been working with a coalition of health, environmental and community groups to force Midwest Generation comply with the Clean Air Act and clean up its coal plants. On July 28, 2009, ELPC and the coalition filed a 60 day notice of their intent to sue Midwest Generation for Clean Air Act violations.

“Midwest Generation’s own reports show that they have been breaking the law and endangering public health for years,” said Faith Bugel, Senior Attorney for ELPC. ”We’re encouraged to see that U.S. EPA and the State of Illinois are holding Midwest Generation accountable for breaking the law. ELPC and our colleagues will remain engaged as the lawsuit moves forward.”  

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found that pollution from nine coal plants in northern Illinois causes 311 premature deaths, 4100 emergency room visits, and 21,500 asthma attacks annually. Midwest Generation owns coal plants in Chicago, Waukegan, Joliet, Romeoville and Pekin, Illinois.

Read Coverage in the Plainfield Sun and Wall Street Journal

Chicago’s Fisk and Crawford Coal Plants

Michigan’s Wolverine Coal Plant

Kentucky’s Trimble, Cash Creek and NewGas Coal Plants

Chicago’s Fisk & Crawford Coal Plants

In Chicago, a team of ELPC’s attorneys, policy advocates, and communications experts is working with the Chicago Clean Power Coalition to clean up or shut down the old, dirty Fisk and Crawford coal plants located in the city’s Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods, respectively.

ELPC’s and the Coalition’s work includes advocacy for the passage of a City ordinance that would significantly reduce soot and greenhouse gas pollution from Chicago’s coal plants. The Clean Power Ordinance would make Chicago the first city in the nation to regulate pollution from coal plants.

The Ordinance was introduced in July 2011 with enough votes to pass City Council. It now has 35 co-sponsors (26 are required for passage) and is supported by majority of the City Council, including 9 newly elected aldermen. In addition to the cosponsors, the ordinance is backed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a grassroots campaign of nearly 60 community, health, labor and environmental groups from across the city.

Michigan’s Wolverine Coal Plant

In Michigan, ELPC is lead counsel for a coalition that opposes the proposed new 600-megawatt Wolverine coal plant in the picturesque fishing town of Rogers City. Our work has included massive, coordinated statewide efforts to document legal deficiencies with 8 coal plants proposed in the state as well as more robust legal challenge of the Wolverine plant in particular.

The coalition scored a major victory when former Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE) Director Rebecca Humphries denied a permit needed to build the controversial plant. But a state court overturned that decision, and the state agency issued the air permit to Wolverine in June 2011. ELPC is now preparing to appeal that permit.

Kentucky’s Cash Creek and NewGas Coal Plants

ELPC represents the Kentucky Chapter of the Sierra Club and other local groups in legal challenges to air permits issues to two coal-to-synthetic natural gas plants, Cash Creek and Kentucky NewGas. Currently, ELPC’s appeals of the plants’ Clean Air Act Title V operating permits are in the Kentucky state court system. ELPC has also petitioned the U.S. EPA to object to the permits.

Recent Highlights

The editors echoed ELPC’s call for the Iowa Utilities Board to require a strong efficiency plan from the utility Investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency will create jobs, save money, reduce pollution and eliminate the need for an expensive new coal plant.

Read the editorial here.