More
than 30 years ago, Congress adopted the Clean Air Act to protect the public
health from respiratory illnesses caused by soot, smog and toxic air pollution.
Since then, the Clean Air Act has been pushing the development of ever-cleaner
industrial processes and more effective pollution control technologies. Consequently,
we’ve begun to make progress toward making the air truly safe to breathe.
However, we still have a
long way to go. Every year, air pollution sends 30,000 Floridians to emergency
rooms, triggers over 400,000 asthma attacks, and causes over 1,700 premature
deaths. Childhood asthma rates have nearly doubled since the early 1980’s, and
over 200,000 Florida children now suffer from asthma. Air pollution also degrades
our ecosystems, polluting waterways across the state, damaging agricultural
land and wilderness areas and contributing to global warming.
Power
plants emit more air pollution than any other industry in Florida. The only comparable
sources of air pollution are cars and trucks. Air pollution from power plants
poses serious threats to public health and the environment, including:
•
Asthma attacks and emergency room visits: Ozone smog pollution in Florida
is estimated to trigger more than 400,000 asthma attacks and send more than
12,000 Floridians to hospital emergency rooms each year. Ozone smog is formed
when nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds mix with sunlight, and may
permanently damage and stunt developing lungs, triggering asthma attacks and
possibly causing asthma. Power plants are Florida’s largest industrial source
of nitrogen oxide (NOX) pollution that causes smog formation.
• Premature death:
Sulfur dioxide from power plants forms fine particulate pollution (soot) in
the air, which is responsible for an estimated 1,740 premature deaths each year
in Florida. By weakening people’s lungs and hearts, soot is taking months and
even years off of the lives of these Floridians. Ninety-seven percent of all
sulfur dioxide pollution emitted in Florida comes from power plants.
• Mercury contamination:
Over 2 million acres of lakes, more than 50,000 miles of rivers, and the
entire coastline of Florida have been posted with warnings not to eat the fish
due to mercury contamination. Consumption of these fish can cause neurological
problems, including developmental retardation in fetuses and young children.
This problem not only impacts our health but also Florida’s economy. In 2001,
recreational anglers spent $4,083,409,000 on fishing in Florida, ranking the
state #1 in the nation for money spent on recreational fishing. The commercial
fishing, processing and seafood restaurant sectors contribute at least another
billion dollars in economic impact. Coal-burning power plants are responsible
for nearly one-third of all mercury emissions in Florida.
• Agricultural Damage:
According to data collected by EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Florida
loses between $2,988,000 and $6,178,000 annually as a result of cotton, corn,
wheat, peanut, and soybean crops that are exposed to ozone pollution. No analysis
has been done to estimate ground-level ozone damage to the state’s fruit and
vegetable industry, which is valued at over $3 billion.
• Global warming: The
world’s leading climate experts have concluded that the planet is getting hotter
due to pollution from burning fossil fuels such as coal. If this continues,
the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts more violent
weather, the northward spread of tropical diseases such as malaria, rising sea
levels, and widespread disruption of ecosystems. In 2000, Florida’s electric
power plants released more than 127 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the
main cause of global warming.
With strong enforcement of
the current Clean Air Act, we can take important steps forward towards solving
these problems. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is instead working on behalf
of the polluting industries to gut clean air protections that are on the books
and enact a much weaker set of pollution caps that will allow more emissions over
a much longer period of time than if we simply enforced current law. Deceptively
dubbed the "Clear Skies Initiative" by the political spin-doctors in the White
House, public health advocates have come to call the proposal the "mother of all
clean air rollbacks." In fact, the President’s dirty air plan is a massive weakening
of our clean air safeguards, giving the electric, coal and oil industries gifts
that they only dared to dream of before now. For example:
• Under the current Clean
Air Act, EPA can require reductions of toxic mercury emissions from power plants
to just five tons per year by 2008. However, under the President’s dirty air
plan, power plants would be allowed to emit 26 tons of mercury per year, and
would not have to meet this target until 2010. A second target of 15 tons of
mercury would not have to be met until 2018.
• Under the current Clean
Air Act, EPA can require reductions of soot-forming sulfur emissions from power
plants to just 2 million tons per year by 2012. Under the President’s dirty
air plan, power plants could emit more than 4.5 million tons per year through
2018, when a second step might or might not be taken to reduce emissions to
3 million tons per year, still above what would be allowed under current law.
• Under the current Clean
Air Act, EPA can require reductions of smog-forming nitrogen emissions from
power plants to just 1.25 million tons per year by 2010. However, under the
President’s dirty air plan NOx emissions could stay as high as 2.1 million tons
per year through 2018, when a second cap might or might not be imposed by EPA
to reduce emissions to 1.7 million tons.
• The President’s dirty
air plan allows carbon dioxide emissions to keep increasing, compounding the
already enormous threat of global warming.
Although the President’s
dirty air plan is a major threat to public health, stopping efforts to weaken
the Clean Air Act is not enough. The Florida PIRG-backed Clean Power Act, introduced
by Sen. James Jeffords (VT), and the Clean Smokestacks Act, introduced in the
House by Reps. Henry Waxman (CA) and Sherwood Boehlert (NY), would supplement
the current Clean Air Act by adding a comprehensive set of national caps on power
plants curbing all four major pollutants: sulfur, nitrogen, carbon and mercury.
The bills would achieve these goals by requiring power plants to reduce nitrogen
oxides by 75 percent, sulfur dioxide by 75 percent, mercury by 90 percent and
return carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels. These rates would need to be achieved
by 2008. We have the technology to achieve dramatic reductions in power plant
air pollution. To protect public health and Florida’s precious natural environment,
our electric companies must begin a dramatic shift away from old, coal-burning
power plants, toward less polluting, and ultimately nonpolluting, sources of electricity.
There are many technologies available today that can:
• Clean up existing power
plants: Installing modern pollution controls on existing facilities and
switching to cleaner fuels can eliminate all but a fraction of the mercury,
nitrogen and sulfur pollution, while dramatically reducing carbon pollution
at the same time.
• Increase energy efficiency:
By using more efficient lighting, household appliances, office equipment
and industrial equipment, we can dramatically lower the amount of electricity
needed to power our homes and workplaces. Increasing energy efficiency standards
for just ten commercial products and appliances would reduce Florida’s electricity
needs by 3 percent of electricity sales in 2000 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions
by 2.5 million metric tons by 2020, while saving Florida consumers nearly $3
billion on their electric bills.
• Increase renewable
energy resources: Nonpolluting electricity sources such as solar and clean
biomass could make up at least 20 percent of our electricity use by the year
2020. These technologies are proven, and are in use across the country today.
To
reduce power plant air pollution and jump-start a shift to clean energy technologies,
we support the following policies.
1. Oppose
the Bush administration’s Clear Skies Initiative. The White House's
Clear Skies proposal will weaken the Clean Air Act and allow more air pollution
to be emitted into our skies than current law.
2. Enforce, not weaken,
a key provision of the Clean Air Act called New Source Review. The New Source
Review rules require plant operators to install the best available pollution
controls when a new plant or refinery is built, or when an old facility is undergoing
significant modifications. Many old power plants still operating with little
or no pollution controls have ignored the NSR provisions and are actually violating
the law. Enforcement of NSR could eliminate hundreds of thousands of tons of
air pollution annually.
3. Close the Lethal Loophole.
All power plants, old or new, should be required to meet modern pollution standards
that protect the public health from the smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and
soot-forming sulfur dioxide (SO2). Overall, NOx and SO2 emissions from power
plant should be reduced 75 percent by the year 2007.
4. Set strict limits on
emission of toxic mercury from all power plants. By the year 2007, mercury emissions
from each power plant should be cut by 90 percent.
5. Set strict limits on
emissions of carbon dioxide from all power plants. By the year 2007, the electric
industry should reduce emissions of CO2 to 1990 levels, as required by the 1992
international treaty signed by President Bush in Rio de Janeiro.
