PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Contact:
Thursday, October 11, 2007 Paul Ertelt, (518) 449-3870,
Earlier Rulings Played Role in Historic Air Pollution Settlement
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Duke Energy Corp. helped pave the way for the largest environmental settlement in history, said Neil F. Woodworth, Executive Director of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK).
On Oct. 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that American Electric Power Co., one of the nation’s largest electric generators, had settled a federal lawsuit by agreeing to cut 813,000 tons of air pollutants annually at an estimated cost of at least $4.6 billion. The Columbus, Ohio-based company also agreed to pay a $15 million penalty and spend $60 million on projects to mitigate the adverse effects of its past excess emissions.
“This settlement will go a long way in mitigating the devastating effects of acid rain on the Adirondacks, and it would not have been possible without the environmental victory in the Duke Energy case,” Woodworth said. “It’s clear that AEP looked at that decision and saw the handwriting on the wall.”
The AEP settlement resolves a 1999 lawsuit alleging the company violated the New Source Review (NSR) requirements of the Clean Air Act. Under NSR, when operators retrofit older power plants and increase emissions, they must install the most up-to-date pollution control devices.
But the utility industry, reluctant to make the investment in scrubbers, has sought loopholes in the law. The Duke Energy case was the high court’s first opportunity to interpret the NSR rule.
Duke Energy argued that it was not obligated to install air pollution control technology if it kept its hourly emissions of pollutants below a certain level, even when improvements to the plant allowed it to double its hours of operation and double its annual emissions.
In a legal brief, ADK and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation disagreed with Duke Energy and argued that Congress’ intention was to reduce pollution, so the true measure should be the total annual emissions. ADK was the only New York environmental organization to file a brief in this case.
The Supreme Court agreed, in a unanimous decision handed down in April, clearly establishing the rule that an actual increase in air pollution triggers an obligation to install the latest air pollution control technology.
ADK also believes that the AEP settlement was motivated in part by the federal courts’ rejection of a Bush administration regulation that would have allowed utilities to pass off major modifications to their power plants as routine maintenance, thereby avoiding the NSR pollution-control trigger.
Under the settlement, AEP will install pollution control devices to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 79 percent and nitrogen oxides by 69 percent less nitrogen oxides from 2006 levels.
Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide react with other compounds in the air to form acids that reach the earth through rain, snow, fog or as dry particles. In the northeastern United States, numerous forest and freshwater aquatic regions suffer from the ecological damage and health problems associated with acid rain and acid deposition.
Because of acid rain, a quarter of the lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks have become too acidic to support aquatic life. Acidic precipitation also depletes calcium from forest soils, leaving sugar maple and red spruce trees more vulnerable to insects and winter kill. Since the 1960s, more than one-half of the large canopy red spruce in the Adirondack and Green Mountains and one-quarter of large canopy red spruce in the White Mountains have died.
The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting New York’s Forest Preserve and other wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation.