July 24, 2004

P ollution from coal-fired power plants increased more than 16 percent since 1992 and is likely to worsen as utilities competing in deregulated markets increasingly rely on older power plants, a new study says.

More than 159 million Americans live in communities with unhealthy air. Air pollution from power plants alone contributes to an estimated 30,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks, and tens of thousands of hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses each year. Everyone deserves air that is safe to breathe.

Coal-fired plants in Pennsylvania generated only about 6 percent more electricity than they did seven years ago, but the issue is especially critical to state residents as utilities upwind in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia have increased emissions as much as 46 percent.

"I think this is really bad news for states like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, states that are probably doing a better job transitioning away from coal", said John Coequyt, co-author of the report, " Up In Smoke: Congress' Failure to Control Emissions from Coal Power Plants ".

"There's no way Pennsylvania is going to be able to stop its clean-air problems without other states stepping up", he said.

The increased reliance by utilities on coal-fired power plants has generated the pollution equivalent of putting another 570,487 cars on the road in Pennsylvania between 1992 and 1998, according to the report produced by the Environmental Working Group and U.S. PIRG. Nationally, 755,000 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution has been produced, or the equivalent of the pollution generated by nearly 37 million cars. Coal produces approximately two times the amount of carbon dioxide as natural gas, and a third more CO2 per unit of heat than oil.

Coal-fired plants produce 56 percent of the nation's electricity.

The study blames increased use of electricity generated by older, dirtier coal-fired plants with contributing to smog and global warming problems. The problem is likely to grow because the Clean Air Act grandfathered plants planned or constructed before 1977. Utilities use these plants, which are allowed to produce up to 10 times as much pollution as newer facilities, to generate cheaper power.

Deregulation of the utility business has really "exasperated the problem", Coequyt said.

Electricity generated from the same plants grew 2 percent before deregulation and 16 percent after as utilities pushed under-utilized facilities harder, he said. The largest increase was in Illinois, where coal-fired plants generated 46 percent more electricity between 1992 and 1998.

The largest increase in Pennsylvania, which is in its first year of electric deregulation, was at PECO Energy Co. plants in Delaware and Chester counties, which respectively increased generation 51.9 percent and 47.3 percent during the same period.

Source: The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa.