States Renewed Call for Plant Emission Cuts

States Renewed Call for Plant Emission Cuts



November 2007
 
 Reducing power plant emissions 
achieves fewer deaths, fewer respiratory and heart-related hospital 
admissions and emergency room visits, decreases in school absences, and 
higher worker productivity, a new study by the Ozone Transport Commission, 
OTC, has found. 
With these findings in mind, the OTC, an organization of 12 northeastern 
and mid-Atlantic states plus the District of Columbia created under the 
Clean Air Act of 1990, is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
to require deeper emission reductions from power generators, above and 
beyond those provided in the 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule. 

"The science is clear; we can save lives by reducing power plant 
emissions," said OTC Chair Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey 
Department of Environmental Protection. 
"It is time for the federal government to work with the states to 
immediately implement national controls that put the health of people 
before the wealth of industry," Jackson said. 
The Clean Air Interstate Rule will permanently cap emissions of sulfur 
dioxide, SO2, and nitrogen oxides, NOx, in the eastern United States and 
establishes a cap-and-trade system for these gases. 
When fully implemented in 2015, CAIR is expected to reduce SO2 emissions 
in 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia by over 70 percent and 
NOx emissions by over 60 percent from 2003 levels. 
Since 2001, the OTC has periodically recommended that emissions from power 
plants be slashed. The organization has complained that power plant 
emissions blowing into the region from midwestern generating stations 
would create unhealthy conditions even if no emissions were produced by 
power plants in the northeast. 
Now, new analyses conducted by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air 
Use Management in collaboration with the OTC also show that additional 
health benefits would be achieved by reducing power plant emissions beyond 
levels currently required by the EPA. 
Cutting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide power plant emissions by about 
20 percent from levels currently required by the EPA provides $1.7 to 2 
billion in annual health benefits in the OTC states by 2018, the research 
shows.

The results show benefits in the eastern United States will range between 
$6.7 and 7.8 billion annually. 
The OTC member jurisdictions are: Connecticut, Delaware, District of 
Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia. 
In May, the OTC released the results of a modeling analysis showing that 
power plants could achieve this level of emission reductions in 2018 for 
$2.6 billion in incremental total production costs nationally.
"In light of this compelling evidence that the benefits of further 
reducing emissions from the power sector far outweigh the costs, it is 
time now for EPA to require the power sector to implement the latest 
pollution-reducing technology to prevent further unacceptable and 
avoidable health effects," said Jared Snyder, assistant commissioner of 
the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and vice chair of 
the OTC. 
Many OTC member states, including New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts, 
and Maryland, are requiring advanced controls on power plants by as soon 
as 2010, showing that additional levels of control are achievable in the 
very near future. 

The OTC results are supported by research conducted by the American Lung 
Association. In May, for the first time since the association began 
issuing its annual air quality report card, data revealed a split picture 
along either side of the Mississippi River. Particle pollution, or soot, 
the most dangerous pollutant, increased in the East but decreased in the 
West. 
"The increased particle pollution in the East is a particularly troubling 
trend, because exposure to particle pollution can not only take years off 
your life, it can threaten your life immediately," said Terri Weaver, PhD, 
RN, who chairs the American Lung Association. 
"Even in many areas EPA currently considers safe, the science clearly 
shows that the air is too often dangerous to breathe, particularly for 
those with lung diseasem" said Weaver. "Protecting Americans from 
potentially deadly air pollution means we need more protective federal 
standards, so that every community in the United States can have truly 
clean air." 
Higher soot levels in the East are linked to an increase in electricity 
generated by heavy polluting power plants, the association says. In the 
West, by contrast, soot levels continue to drop even in areas that rank 
historically high in particle pollution. 

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