Mission

Despite advances in renewable energy, the nation still depends on coal-fired power plants for more than half of its electricity. Coal combustion produces smog, soot, acid rain, the neurotoxin mercury, and is the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming. A loophole in the Clean Air Act allows existing power plants to avoid installing modern pollution controls. ELPC is working with numerous environmental groups, state governments and others to require aging coal-fired power plants to install these modern technologies.

 

ELPC and Colleagues File Petition to Regulate CO2

October 10, 2007 - Ten local, state, regional and national public interest groups petitioned Michigan to begin regulating emissions of CO2 from coal-burning electric power plants. The petition is supported by this spring's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the federal government to declare carbon dioxide a pollutant because it contributes to global warming. To read more, visit the Grand Rapids Press article by clicking the Learn More icon above.

 

American Electric Power Settles for $4.6 Billion in Clean Air Act Case

October 9, 2007 - American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to pay $4.6 billion towards new pollution controls at its existing plant over the next decade, the single largest environmental enforcement settlement in history. ELPC and our colleagues originally filed the suit in 1999, stating AEP violated the New Source Review requirements under the Clean Air Act at a number of its coal-fired power plants.

 

The Midwest has the largest concentration of old, dirty coal-fired power plants in the nation. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin account for one fifth of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, helping to give the Midwest the less-than-glamorous distinction of being responsible for more global warming pollution than any single nation on the planet other than China, India, Japan and the former Soviet Union. Yet various energy companies are actively working to build even more "old technology" coal plants throughout the midwest. At present, plans for more than two dozen plants are in the works, mostly in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

When Congress amended the Clean Air Act in 1977, it "grandfathered-in" older power plants, exempting them from requirements to upgrade to newer, cleaner pollution control technologies. This was done based on the assumption that these older facilities would soon shut down and be replaced by new, cleaner plants. Unfortunately, that assumption turned out to be egregiously false. At present, 65 percent of the coal-burning power plants operating in the United States were built before Jimmy Carter took office.

Currently, ELPC is co-council on a series of legal cases challenging the failure of large energy companies to install the modern pollution control technology required by the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act on their aging coal plants. ELPC is also working to get Illinois and other states to impose more stringent mercury emission limits, which are economically and technologically feasible. This campaign is a direct challenge to the Bush Administration's decision not to adequately regulate power plant emissions.

Mercury

In March 2005, the U.S. EPA issued its long-delayed final regulations on mercury pollution from coal plants, which include a national pollution limit and a cap-and-trade program. However, the agency ignored its own science advisory board and issued regulations that are insufficient to protect public health. Responding to U.S. EPA's weak proposal, ELPC has called on states to fill the gap.

In January 2006, after intensive negotiations among ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner, Director of Illinois EPA Doug Scott, and the Governor's office, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich proposed a strong set of mercury pollution control standards to protect human health and the environment. The standards draw on modern technologies and would reduce mercury pollution from coal plants by 90 percent or more by 2009.

The Governor's plan is an enormous success for ELPC, the Illinois environmental community, and the health of Illinois' citizens in that it makes the state a national leader in curbing mercury pollution. For more information on the Governor's plan and on mercury pollution, please visit www.stopmercurypollution.org.

Louisville Gas & Electric

ELPC is representing a local Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club and two other Kentucky environmental organizations, Save the Valley and Valley Watch, in an attempt to stop Louisville Gas & Electric from constructing a new 750 megawatt coal-fired boiler at its Trimble County facility. This is a particularly important case because Trimble County is one of the first in a long line of proposed new coal plants and coal plant expansions throughout the Midwest. If successful, this lawsuit would establish a favorable and much-needed precedent for future disputes.

American Electric Power

ELPC is involved in one of the most important clean air cases in the country, a lawsuit against American Electric Power (AEP) for violations of New Source Review. ELPC, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Clean Air Task Force represent a large number of citizen group plaintiffs in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia who filed suit against AEP for making major modifications to its coal power plants - which are among the most polluting in the country - without installing the required modern pollution controls. The suit was joined with similar federal court actions brought by the Justice Department and the U.S. EPA, and state attorneys general for several states in the Northeast. A win here would significantly improve air quality in the Midwest and Northeast.

Illinois Power and Dynegy Midwest Generation

ELPC, representing four environmental organizations that intervened in a suit brought by the United States in 1999, forced Illinois Power and Dynegy Midwest Generation to spend approximately $500 million on pollution controls at their Baldwin coal plant and other plants in the southern Illinois area. The court-approved settlement agreement also imposes various pollution caps on those plants and requires Dynegy spend $15 million on supplemental environmental projects, including a mercury reduction project at its Vermillion plant, the purchase of natural areas for preservation, and energy efficiency retrofitting in schools and municipal buildings. ELPC is now monitoring the implementation of the settlement, and has reviewed and commented on Dynegy's proposals for the supplemental environmental projects in order to ensure the $15 million actually produces results.

Fisk and Crawford

ELPC is working to reduce pollution from the decrepit Fisk and Crawford coal plants, located in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods, respectively. These facilities are the two largest sources of sulfur dioxide emissions in all of Cook County. ELPC has petitioned the U.S. EPA to issue final permits for these facilities on the grounds that Illinois EPA failed to issue its own permits within the Clean Air Act's 90-day requirement and did not comply with a U.S. EPA order.