| Protecting the Nation from Air Pollution
A log jam of long-delayed measures finally broke loose in 2005, bringing us steps closer to much cleaner air. Unfortunately, the year also brought more efforts to protect selected polluters from cleaning up and left locomotive-sized holes in the rules for power plants and diesel engines. Then, early in 2006 came a victory in court that closed one of those big loopholes EPA had tried to open.
Blocked for years by industry lawsuits, the Environmental Protection Agency took steps in 2005 to free the states and local governments to begin new plans to clean the air in their communities. EPA proposed new limits on particle pollution and finally announced a new major program to clean up coal-fired power plants. Unfortunately, polluters and their friends in Congress and the Administration are also working to delay and diminish the impact of these steps. Several proposals would handicap or block clean up measures from some sources entirely. The American Lung Association and our allies are fighting those changes in Congress and in the courts to keep our nation’s ability to fight air pollution strong.
States renewed their fight to clean up local and regional pollution
In 2004, EPA officially told each state which areas still had too much ozone and particle pollution. Those announcements set states and cities to work to determine how to meet the health-based limits, or standards, for each pollutant. In 2005, state and local officials began the long process to decide which sources of pollution to trim and by how much. State and local governments began holding community meetings and analyzing various approaches to map out a strategy to reduce local sources of pollution. These areas will have to put some clean up measures in place beginning in 2007; some areas with especially dirty air have until 2021 to complete the clean up.1
However, states and cities would have taken these steps years ago had industry lawsuits and EPA decisions not blocked them from getting started. As it is, state and local governments are working to reduce emissions to meet the limits on air pollution, called the national air quality standards, that EPA set in 1997. In the ensuing decade, thousands of studies have confirmed that those standards are set too high, forcing communities to continue to breathe levels of pollution that threaten human health.
Steps backward
Unfortunately, in a step the Lung Association is challenging in court, EPA changed the procedures state and local governments must follow to clean up air pollution and, in the process, weakened the protections the public expects. Under these new regulations, many cities with serious air pollution problems, like Cincinnati and Phoenix, will not have to put in place effective strategies to clean up local sources of pollution. In addition, EPA will allow these communities to have unhealthy levels of pollution for years longer than other cities. These changes violate requirements clearly spelled out in the Clean Air Act.2 The American Lung Association and our allies are fighting these changed rules in the courts.
EPA proposed new standards that failed to adequately protect public health
In December 2005, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson finally proposed new standards for particle pollution (particulate matter or PM). Lamentably, the proposal fails to protect the public health as required by the Clean Air Act. The standards were last reviewed and revised in 1997. The Clean Air Act requires a review of the standards to be completed every five years. Thus, EPA should have proposed new standards in 2002. The Agency finally proposed new standards because the American Lung Association and other environmental groups sued the Agency to force it to review the 1997 standards. In September 2006, EPA will announce the final standards.
Late as they are, EPA’s proposals for the particle standards failed to do what the Clean Air Act requires: Protect public health with an adequate margin of safety.
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EPA’s proposal for fine particles (PM2.5 and smaller) was much weaker than the proposal recommended by the American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society, American Public Health Association, American College of Cardiology, and other public health and medical groups. For the first time, EPA’s proposal was also less protective than that recommended by its own independent scientific advisors and staff scientists, air pollution specialists who had explored the research for seven years.
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EPA’s proposal ignored health risks from larger coarse particles (PM 10-2.5) from agriculture or mining and exempted them from control. EPA even decided to stop monitoring for these pollutants in cities smaller than 100,000 people, despite having no scientific basis to decide that these particles were safe to breathe. 3
EPA accepted public comment on its recommendations until April 17, 2006. Under a court order, EPA Administrator Johnson is required to determine the final standard by September 27, 2006.
The ozone standard is also finally under review. EPA is in the midst of reviewing the national air standard for ozone, having last set that standard in 1997. As a result of a court settlement with the American Lung Association, EPA must propose a new standard for ozone by March 2007 and announce its final decision in December 2007.
EPA empowered the states to clean up power plants
Old coal-fired power plants are among the biggest industrial polluters, especially in the eastern half of the United States. The toll of death, disease and environmental destruction caused by coal-fired power plant pollution continues to mount. An analysis released in 2004 attributed 24,000 premature deaths each year to power plant pollution. In addition, the research estimates over 550,000 asthma attacks, 38,000 heart attacks and 12,000 hospital admissions are caused annually by power plant pollution.4
On March 10, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule, or CAIR, that will require 28 states and the District of Columbia to reduce power plant emissions by 2015. CAIR is similar to an approach EPA used successfully in 1998 that resulted in major power plants installing new pollution control measures by 2004 in 11 states, with reductions coming in parts of two additional states in 2007. The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to force the plants to clean up by requiring states to reduce the pollution blown across state lines.
The Clean Air Interstate Rule targets the problem of pollution blowing across state lines, especially from sources that may be hundreds of miles upwind. Under this rule, these 28 states and the District of Columbia are directing power plants and other sources to clean up emissions that contribute to ozone and particle pollution. Power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide also contribute to pollution problems nearer to the plants, so cleaner smokestacks mean less harm to people living in a widespread geographic area.
According to EPA, CAIR will help 450 counties in the eastern United States reduce pollution enough to meet the current national standards for ozone and particle pollution. Critically, CAIR protects the authority of the states to reduce pollution even further. EPA estimates that cleaning up these power plants and other sources will have the following important health benefits by 2015:
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prevent 17,000 deaths annually;
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prevent millions of lost work and school days from asthma attacks, and other
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respiratory and cardiovascular problems;
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prevent tens of thousands of non-fatal heart attacks; and
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prevent tens of thousand of hospital admissions.
EPA estimates that cleaning up these polluters will provide $85 billion to $100 billion in annual health benefits, which totals 25 times the cost of implementation. When the clean up is finished in 2015, EPA estimates that emissions of sulfur dioxide, which are major sources of particle pollution in the eastern states, will be 57 percent lower than in 2003. Emissions of nitrogen oxide, a key ingredient in ozone, are expected to be 61 percent lower than in 2003.5
Despite these benefits, EPA could have and should have required power plants to reduce even more pollution and to make those cuts sooner than 2015. The American Lung Association repeatedly urged EPA to use this opportunity to clean up even more pollution, faster. To ensure that EPA acted, the Lung Association, Environmental Defense and Earthjustice took legal action in March 2004, alerting EPA that the Clean Air Act requires the Agency to clean up the widespread pollution produced by power plants and other facilities.
What caused EPA to delay and limit its clean up when the public health benefits are so clear? Until late December 2004, EPA had publicly promised that it would publish the final rule before year’s end, putting the requirements into effect. At the last minute, the Administration decided to delay this workable measure to try to push forward a bill (S. 131, the Administration’s so-called “Clear Skies” bill) favored by corporate polluters. S. 131 weakens the Clean Air Act in many significant ways (see description below). On March 9, 2005, a bipartisan group of senators defeated the bill in committee. However, the Administration still supports S. 131 and, according to EPA, still “remains committed to working with Congress to pass legislation.”6
Does cleaning up power plants really help cut pollution?
Yes! Recent cuts resulted in more than 5 times the annual drop in ozone levels each
year than before, announced EPA last year. In 1998, EPA required 13 eastern states to
greatly reduce the tons of nitrogen oxides they spread across their borders. EPA examined
what happened to ozone levels between 2002 and 2004, when power plants had
installed the required equipment in eleven of the 13 states. In a study that controlled for
changes in ozone levels due to weather, EPA found that before these measures, ozone
levels dropped about one percent per year in most states. After 2002, ozone levels were
dropping by about 5 percent per year on average.
Source: US EPA. Evaluating Ozone Control Programs in the Eastern United States: Focus on the NOx Budget Trading Program, 2004. August 2005. |
Protecting the Nation form Air Pollution continued... |
