Groups sue for coal plant compliance

Dec 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ken Ward Jr. The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit trying to force the federal government to comply with a 6-year-old mandate to reduce toxic chemical emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, asks for a court order requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set limits for mercury and dozens of other hazardous air pollutants.

"Power plants are the largest unregulated industrial source of air toxics," said Jim Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of the groups that filed the suit. "It is unconscionable that six years after the deadline for action, we still do not have air toxics controls on these large existing sources of pollution."

The suit follows up on a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that threw out two Bush administration rules governing power plant emissions. The Bush EPA rules had essentially overturned a Clinton administration move under the 1990 Clean Air Act to set new air limits for arsenic, chromium, various acid mists and other hazardous air pollutants.

In December 2000, the Clinton EPA had added power plants to the list of major sources of those pollutants, following a detailed study ordered by Congress. Under the Clinton action, EPA would be required to limit power plant emissions of those substances to those achieved by the best-performing 12 percent of facilities nationwide. Those limits were to be finalized no later than December 2002.

But the Bush EPA reversed the Clinton actions, as part of its move to implement its own version of a cap-and-trade mercury emissions control system. Under the Bush rule, power plants would be able to evade required mercury emissions cuts by buying pollution credits from other companies.

Power plants are a major source of mercury, which is a potent neurotoxin linked to birth defects, loss of IQ, learning disabilities and developmental problems. Coal-fired power plants are also the largest single industry sector in West Virginia and nationwide in terms of toxic air emissions.

In February, the federal appeals court in D.C. tossed out the Bush EPA's attempt to reverse the Clinton action on power plant toxic emissions. But in the 10 months since then, EPA has taken no action to write the required toxic limits.

"There are affordable technologies widely available today that can substantially reduce mercury and other toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants," said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign. "By turning a blind eye to these technologies, the EPA is unnecessarily putting the health of children everywhere at risk."

Clean Air Task Force attorney Ann B. Weeks said that environmental groups hope that the new Obama administration will "act quickly to mandate the deep cuts in this pollution, as the Clean Air Act requires."

Reach Ken Ward Jr.

at kward@wvgazette.com

or 304-348-1702.