Press Clips

News Articles

• 6/30/03 Environmental News Service: UN Committee Recommends Stricter Mercury Limits
• 2/1/02 Washington Post: Study: Pollution May Cause Asthma
• 8/29/01 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Natural gas plants preferred, poll says: Residents found to fear pollution from coal
• 8/15/01 Washington Post: EPA Delays Proposals on Coal-Fired Plants
• 4/24/01 Barre-Montpelier Times Argus: Massachusetts leads nation in cleaning up old power plants
• 3/15/01 CNN: Senators urge passage of Clean Power Act
• 1/12/01 Portsmouth Herald Editorial: Make older power plants meet modern standards
• 9/18/99 Environmental News Service: Coal Burning Power Plants Spewing Mercury
• 7/19/99 AP: EPA reviewing coal-fired plants

Reports

• 10/00 Clean the Air: Death, Disease & Dirty Power
• 1997 Greenpeace: The Threat of Climate Change to Arctic Human Communities

Press Releases

From NRDC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Alyssondra Campaigne or Elliott Negin, 202-289-6868

NRDC Praises Congressional Leaders for Introducing Legislation Cutting Power Plant Emissions

Group Says Clean Air Act Defines Carbon Dioxide as a Pollutant

WASHINGTON (March 15, 2001) - NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) today praised Sens. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) for introducing legislation calling for emissions cuts from the four major pollutants produced by electricity generation: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and carbon dioxide.

“In contrast to President Bush’s about-face and short-sighted approach to dealing with global warming threats, these congressional leaders recognize that it is just common sense to control all the major emissions from power plants in an integrated program,” said NRDC Legislative Director Alyssondra Campaigne. “Now it’s up to Congress to pass this legislation and protect the Nation’s health and environment.”

Contrary to the claims made yesterday by the president, CO2 is defined as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Carbon dioxide appears in section 103(g)(1) of the Clean Air Act, which states:

[T]he Administrator shall conduct a basic engineering research and technology program to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate non-regulatory strategies and technologies for air pollution prevention. Such strategies and technologies shall be developed with priority on those pollutants which pose a significant risk to human health and the environment… including sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals, PM-10 (particulate matter), carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, from stationary sources, including fossil fuel power plants…

Electricity generation is the Nation’s single largest source of the four pollutants responsible for our most serious air pollution problems. Electric power plants release more than two-thirds of total U.S. emissions of sulfur dioxide, and more than one-third of each of the other three pollutants. These “four horsemen” of air pollution are hazardous to the environment and human health:

• Fine particles contribute to tens of thousands of premature deaths in the United States each year.
• Smog plagues our cities, and causes respiratory attacks in children and seniors.
• Acid rain damages lakes, streams, forests, and monuments.
• Regional haze spoils trips to national parks for millions of visitors annually.
• Nitrogen emissions contribute to over-fertilization of estuaries, including the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, Pamlico Sound, and the Gulf of Mexico, leading to dead zones – areas void of aquatic life.
• Mercury contamination of lakes and streams has prompted 40 states to issue ongoing health advisories about consuming contaminated fish.
• Carbon dioxide-driven climate change threatens to disrupt weather patterns and cause sea levels to rise with unprecedented costs to the environment and human civilization.

From Ohio PIRG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2001

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Margaux Shields, 216-791-1116
Jack Shaner, The Ohio Environmental Council, 614-487-7506

Bi-Partisan Power Plant Clean Up Bills Introduced in House and Senate

Today, on the heels of President Bush breaking a major campaign promise to cut global warming pollution, members of Congress introduced the “Clean Smokestacks Act of 2001” and the “Clean Power Act of 2001.” Ohio PIRG and the Ohio Environmental Council hailed this bipartisan effort as the standard on which all other power plant cleanup proposals will be measured.

These bills would regulate four pollutants from power plants including:

• Carbon Dioxide - which causes global warming
• Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides - which cause acid rain and urban soot and smog which lead to premature death and make breathing difficult for all Americans, especially asthmatics
• Mercury - a potent fetal neurotoxin and the leading pollutant contaminating our lakes and streams

“We welcome this important step in cleaning up power plants and applaud these clean air champions,” said Margaux Shields, Clean Air Associate, Ohio PIRG. Senators James Jeffords (R-Vt.), Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) introduced the legislation. In Ohio, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones are original cosponsors of this legislation.

“We hope the rest of Ohio’s congressional delegation will join these leaders in the fight to protect public health and the environment,” Shields continued. Public health impacts from power plant emissions range from hundreds of thousands asthma attacks to more than 30,000 premature deaths each year according to Abt Associates, the EPA’s health assessment firm.

“For more than twenty years these polluters have had a free ride, and millions of asthmatic kids are paying the price,” stated Shields. “It’s high time for Congress to act.” Yesterday, President Bush succumbed to the fierce pressure of coal and other industry lobbyists by walking away from a specific pledge he made on the campaign trail to clean up power plants and the environment. Members of the public health and environmental community think that President Bush’s decision to renege on his pledge to require mandatory controls on all four pollutants sends a troubling signal for clean air and public health.

“Real reductions from all four pollutants are needed in order to address the growing public health and environmental impacts from power plants. This bill does that,” said Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council. “These Members of Congress have set the public health and environmental standards that other power plant clean-up proposals will be measured against.”

Ohio PIRG is a statewide public interest advocacy group with 10,000 members in Ohio. For more information, visit www.ohiopirg.org.