EPA PROPOSAL WOULD EFFECTIVELY EXEMPT COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS FROM KEY CLE

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EPA PROPOSAL WOULD EFFECTIVELY EXEMPT COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS FROM KEY CLEAN AIR ACT STANDARD

NRDC Says Agency Adopts Industry Position, Which Would Increase Air Pollution Nationwide, Undermine Clean Air Act Enforcement


WASHINGTON (August 31, 2005) -- The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue a proposal that would allow coal-fired power plants across the country to increase their toxic emissions by crippling a key provision of the Clean Air Act, according to a draft agency document obtained by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Specifically, the proposal would exempt coal-fired power plants from installing modern-day pollution controls when upgrading their facilities and increasing their annual pollution. (For details about the EPA proposal, click here.)

The proposal, which embraces the very industry position that EPA lawyers have successfully argued against in court, would undermine any future clean air act enforcement, the group said.

"When has the government ever decided to take the side of lawbreakers? That's what this radical proposal does," said John Walke, NRDC's clean air director. "These power plants have been breaking the law for decades, threatening public health. But now that federal authorities have finally begun to crack down on them, the Bush administration decides to gut the law."

Currently, the Clean Air Act's "new source review" program requires power plants undertaking construction activities that boost their total annual pollution to install state-of-the-art pollution controls. Under the new rulemaking proposal, however, a power plant would only have to install controls if it increased its hourly pollution. That would allow plants to upgrade equipment to enable them to operate -- and to emit more pollutants -- for many more hours per year without installing new pollution controls.


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http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050831.asp