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EPA coal ruling - electricity rates go up 20 % minimum
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to adopt rules reducing toxic air pollution from the nation's coal- and oil-burning power plants, by November 2011, according to a settlement agreement reached in a federal lawsuit brought against the agency by a coalition of public health and environmental groups. The announcement of the decision came from Washington, DC on October 23, 2009..
The settlement has been lodged in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Attorneys at Earthjustice, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Clean Air Task Force, Natural Resources
Defense Council, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Waterkeeper Alliance filed the lawsuit last December on behalf of their organizations and the American Nurses Association, Conservation Law Foundation, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, Izaak Walton League of America, Natural Resources Council of Maine, The Ohio Environmental Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Sierra Club.
After 20 years of litigation a "solution" has been reached.
One major complaint of the environmental groups is mercury released from coal burning.
The court accepted the contentions of Earthjustice that the Bush administration delayed implementation of cleaner coal rules for electric power plants. The claims made are factual.
There is a viable solution that is patented, tested, and in operation today. This process removes the majority of mercury and other metals from coal prior to burning to produce electricity. The process also reduces the carbon dioxide output from coal burning. This process could even be exported as part of a financial aid package to countries who refuse to or cannot reduce their coal burning for heat and electricity.
So what is the problem?
The Department of Energy refuses to even consider the company for funding to support the expansion of the process to a size that can accommodate all coal burning power plants.
While the DOE has invested billions in supporting the same type process from the ground floor up (reinventing the wheel), it will not support a process that is presently being used to clean mercury and other metals from coal used in coal burning power plants in Alabama and other states.
One of the DOE supported programs guarantees no more than a twenty percent increase in electricity costs once implemented in possibly five years. This project does not address mercury but only CO2.
Alabama is one of the most polluted states in the nation. The causes are the influence of the power companies on government, the gutting of the ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) by the present state administration, and the waffling of the EPA to take over ADEM and the pollution problems in Alabama.
The EPA appears to have been playing "good cop bad cop" or "carrot and stick" with ADEM for the last several months and ADEM obliges by changing its tune at the drop of a hat.
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/125603013432650.xml&coll=3
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/statebriefs.ssf?/base/news/125576733397510.xml&coll=2
Senators and Congressmen from Alabama have been made aware of the company and what it can do to alleviate some of the pollution problems in Alabama. Their response has been words and then no action. Is it better to get DOE funds for a project that will take five years to complete and increase power bills by a minimum of twenty percent than it is to do the obvious now?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6180-Birmingham-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m6d26-EPA-rating-Alabama
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6180-Birmingham-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m4d20-Pollution-money-go-round
This decision by the court only gives the electric companies and administrations like Alabama's a
year head start on delaying tactics, legal maneuvers, and countersuits. However, it is a small step in the right direction and it only took twenty years.
Should we all hold our breaths for fear of death by pollution while ADEM, EPA, and politicians
attempt to sort out a mess that already has a solution.
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