Clean coal? Not so fast my friends . . .

Pa. second in U.S. for smog-producing pollution
Thursday, April 07, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As Congress considers whether to block rules limiting air pollutants, a new report finds that Pennsylvania's coal-fired power plants emit more unhealthy smog producing pollution than any state except Texas.

The report by PennEnvironment, a statewide environmental group, found that in 2009 Pennsylvania's 47 power plants emitted almost 110,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, which mix with other pollutants in the air on warm sunny days to form ground-level ozone, the primary component of unhealthy smog.

Texas, which has 99 power plants, emitted 138,500 tons of nitrogen oxides in 2009, based on data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nationwide, power plants emitted almost 2 million tons of nitrogen oxides.

"Taking a breath should not leave Pennsylvania's children gasping for air," said Matthew Ward, Western Pennsylvania field representative for PennEnvironment. "Smog-forming pollution from power plants puts our children and our environment at risk, and the EPA must act to reduce this life-threatening pollution."

The release of the report coincided with congressional action on legislation aimed at limiting the EPA's ability to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

The report also notes that according to the latest available EPA Air Quality Index data for metropolitan areas in 2008, the Pittsburgh metropolitan area had 34 days when air quality was unhealthy for "sensitive groups" -- including people with lung disease, older adults and children. There was one day that year when the air quality was bad enough to fall into the unhealthy for everyone category.

Seven metropolitan areas, all in California, had more days when air was unhealthy for sensitive groups. In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia had 26 days when the air was unhealthy for sensitive groups and four days when it was unhealthy for everyone.

Randy Francisco, the Sierra Club's organizing representative for its Coal to Clean Energy Campaign in Pennsylvania, said old, dirty power plants in Pennsylvania are damaging the health of people in the state.

"The report points out the importance of EPA regulation and why we need it to act," Mr. Francisco said. "The companies are not going to clean up themselves."

The PennEnvironment report points to the link between power plant emissions and health problems, an issue explored in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's December series, "Mapping Mortality." That eight-day series of articles and videos, along with dozens of interactive maps, showed that there were 12,833 excess deaths, based on national death rates, in the 14-county region of southwestern Pennsylvania, 2000 through 2008, for heart and respiratory disease and lung cancer. Those diseases have been linked to air pollution.