Testimony of
WILLIAM H. SORRELL
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF VERMONT
presented to
COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
and the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
regarding
Cleaning the Air: New Source Review Policy,
Regulations, and Enforcement Activities
July 16, 2002
* * * *
Chairman Jeffords,
Chairman Leahy, and members of the Committees:
Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to share my
thoughts regarding the New Source Review program.
The quality of our nation’s air is of critical importance – not just to
those of us living in the northeastern United States, but also to everyone in
this great nation and most especially our children, the elderly, and those
among us who suffer from respiratory illness.
We have worked hard in Vermont to attain the quality of life that is so
important to us. We value our natural
resources and do our best to be sure we are not soiling our own backyard. I believe it is fair to say that we join the
dialogue regarding air pollution with clean hands.
To give you an idea of the scope of the pollution caused by old, dirty
coal-fired power plants, I want to impress upon you that in 1998, all Vermont
sources of sulphur dioxide emitted a total of approximately 17,000 tons of SO2.
Just one of the plants at issue in the New Source Review enforcement
case that Vermont has joined, the Cardinal Plant in Brilliant, Ohio operated by
American Electric Power and its affiliated companies, emitted more than 152,000
tons of SO2
in the same year – and this plant is not even the largest of the American
Electric Power plants.
We have good reason to be deeply concerned about massive amounts of air
pollution carried into our state by the prevailing winds. The impacts attributable to this wind-borne
pollution, in Vermont and regionally, are sobering and bear repeating:
·
In Vermont,
20% of lakes are moderately to extremely sensitive to acid deposition and
several lakes are critically acidic and, thus, unable to support fish and/or
other aquatic life.
·
Federal
studies conclude that the percentage of acidified lakes is expected to increase
or even double over the next four decades unless upwind emissions of NOx
and SO2 are reduced
extensively.
·
Acid
deposition is a major cause of the widespread decline of red spruce in high
elevation forests throughout the Northeast.
Since the 1960s, more than half of large canopy trees in the Adirondack
Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont and approximately one
quarter of large canopy trees in the White Mountains of New Hampshire have
died. There is also growing evidence
that sugar maple decline is linked to acid deposition.
Our children and grandchildren and generations to come will know only of
the devastating impacts resulting from decades of air pollution and will not
see the recovery of the forests and lakes.
Is this to be our legacy?
As a nation, we must take swift and decisive action to improve
the quality of the air. We applaud the
efforts of EPA and the Department of Justice in working cooperatively with
States to protect air quality. Our
shared successes have included important victories affirming certain aspects of
regulatory programs and the agency’s determinations regarding the long-range
transport of ozone-forming pollutants.
We also appreciate the ongoing efforts by the agency and DOJ in seeking
full implementation of EPA’s regional haze rule, which will help to protect and
improve visibility in our nation’s pristine wilderness areas, including
Shenandoah, the Great Smokey Mountains, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, joined by
Utah and New Mexico, the National Tribal Environmental Council and national
advocacy groups have been actively involved in supporting this effort. We are hopeful that these efforts will lead
to real improvements in the quality of our nation’s air in years to come.
The State of Vermont also is working cooperatively and productively with
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, other States
and national public interest advocacy groups to enforce the existing New Source
Review program against big corporations operating numerous old, dirty coal-fired
power plants. There is no question that
implementation by EPA of the reform package will seriously undercut these
efforts.
Now is not the time to water down the laws needed to protect air
quality. The announced reforms of the
New Source Review program will take us 180 degrees in the wrong direction. As one state regulator has put it, these
reforms will assure longer lives for old, dirty coal-fired power plants and
shorter lives for Americans.
We very much hope that the Administration will change course and not
backtrack on existing environmental protections. However, if it chooses to go forward with its announced changes,
we encourage Congress to reject such efforts to weaken the New Source Review
program.
Thank you again for the opportunity to meet with you and to provide
these comments.
Supplemental Comments by Attorney General
William H. Sorrell
The New Source Review program has been the Act’s most effective tool for
reducing air pollution. However, the
Administration’s proposed changes announced June 13, 2002, will change
this. These changes will amount to the
largest and most significant weakening of clean air regulations in the history
of the Act.
The weakening of these regulations is a major public health and
environmental mistake. A rollback in
the NSR program will result in increased respiratory disease, premature death,
smog, acid rain, and degradation of our waters and forests. Pollution from power plants in the form of
nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and mercury costs Americans
thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year. We need to reduce power plant emissions, not allow them to
increase in the way proposed by the Administration.
When it originally established the program, Congress recognized that the
most cost-efficient time to install new controls was when a power plant was
being built or modified. Congress also
recognized that many power plants were nearing the end of their useful lives
and that requiring new pollution controls on these plants would not be
effective or efficient. However,
Congress declared that new or modified plants should be as clean as
technologically feasible. The
Administration’s decision departs from this bedrock principle and will have
grave consequences for each and every American.
Power Plant
Pollution
In terms of the volume and variety of pollutants emitted, and the
resulting adverse impacts, no source can compare to coal-burning power
plants. These facilities emit the
“worst” of our air pollutants – carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, particulate matter and mercury.
Coal-fired power plants collectively account for about 70 percent of
annual sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and 30 percent of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the
United States. SO2 interacts in the atmosphere to form sulfate
aerosols. These aerosols often travel
long distances in the air and contribute to acid rain and haze. NOx also is carried long distances and is a
major contributing factor to the formation of ground level ozone, or smog. Coal-burning power plants are also a major
source of particulate matter. All of
these pollutants cause serious health and environmental impacts.
Adverse Human
Health Effects from Power Plant Pollution
The health effects caused by these
pollutants are well known and bear repeating:
Premature Death – Fine
particulate matter pollution in the eastern U.S. is composed primarily of
sulfate aerosols. Because these fine
particles can be inhaled more deeply into the lungs than larger particles, they
are associated with certain types of respiratory diseases and premature
death. Particulate pollution claims the
lives of over 30,000 Americans per year.[1]
Asthma – Ozone or “smog”
pollution, formed from nitrogen oxides, is increasing at an alarming rate. Smog pollution severely affects this
country’s 15 million asthmatics. A
recent study found that coal-fired power plant emissions trigger 600,000 asthma
attacks per year and are responsible for sending 20,000 Americans to the
emergency room.[2] Power plant pollution results in 5 million
lost workdays.[3]
Neurological and Developmental
Damages from Mercury Contamination – Americans should not have to worry
about eating fish from rivers, lakes and oceans. Yet, over 40 states have advised their citizens to reduce their
consumption of fish from contaminated waterways. Mercury contamination can cause serious neurological and
developmental damages in children and infants, including subtle loss of sensory
or cognitive ability, delays in developmental milestones, such as walking and
talking, and even birth defects. [4]
The most troublesome aspect of power plant pollution is that our
children are the most vulnerable to its effects. Many factors increase the risk of children
to air pollution as compared to adults.
Due to the higher activity level of children, “pound for pound” they
breathe more air for their size than adults do. In addition, their increased time spent playing outdoors further
increases their exposure to outdoor air pollution. Studies suggest that children suffer a higher prevalence of
asthma than adults, and, thus, asthma makes our children far more susceptible
to impacts of air pollution. The lung’s defense systems in children are still
developing, and are unable to defend against the effects of pollutants as
effectively as the lungs in adults.[5]
Human Health Effects Attributed to Power Plants Charged with
NSR Violations
A recent
report delivered the sobering reality regarding the human health effects that
are caused by the power plants that have been charged with NSR violations.[6] The key findings of this report include:
Harm to Natural Resources
Emissions
of NOx and SO2
from power plants also cause extensive harm to natural resources. In the atmosphere, the NOx and SO2 are converted into acids, including nitric
and sulfuric acids, and other acidifying compounds. These compounds fall to the ground as wet deposition (acid rain,
fog, cloud water, sleet and snow) and dry deposition (gases, aerosols and
particles). These acids and acidifying
compounds are cycled through the soil, vegetation, and surface waters setting
off a cascade of adverse ecological impacts.
Acid
deposition has altered, and continues to alter, soils in areas of the Northeast
in a number of ways. First, acid
deposition has leached base cations, including calcium and magnesium, out of
the soil, thereby reducing the soil’s acid-neutralizing capacity and
fundamentally altering soil processes.
The depletion of these compounds has, in turn, resulted in the
accumulation of sulfur and nitrogen in the soils. When leached out of the soil, sulfur and nitrogen contribute to the
acidification and nitrogen loading of streams and lakes. Additionally, acid deposition facilitates
the mobilization of dissolved inorganic aluminum, an ecologically harmful form
of aluminum, into soil waters, vegetation, lakes and streams. High concentrations of aluminum can be toxic
to fish, plants and other organisms.
Acid
deposition also continues to impair the quality of water in lakes and steams
throughout the Northeast by lowering pH levels, decreasing acid-neutralizing
capacity and increasing aluminum concentrations. Power plant emissions are largely responsible for the fact that
20% of the lakes in New York’s Adirondack Park region are too acidic to support
fish life. In Vermont, 20% of lakes are
moderately too extremely sensitive to acid deposition and several lakes are
critically acidic and, thus, unable to support fish and/or other aquatic
life. Similarly, in New Hampshire,
nearly half of the lakes have been acidified with some so acidic that they do
not support naturally reproducing fish populations. Federal studies conclude that that percentage of acidified lakes
is expected to increase or even double over the next four decades unless upwind
emissions of NOx and SO2 are reduced extensively.
Similar impacts are seen in the lakes and streams of other northeastern
states that lie downwind of the defendants’ power plants.
Decreases
in pH and elevated concentrations of aluminum have reduced the species
diversity and abundance of plankton, invertebrates, fish and other aquatic life
in many streams and lakes in acid sensitive areas of the Northeast. Although chronically high acid levels stress
aquatic life, acid episodes are particularly harmful. Spring runoff from snowmelt creates an annual pulse of acidified
water, which enters lakes and streams in huge volumes. This phenomenon, known as acid shock, is
particularly harmful to aquatic communities because it occurs during spawning
or the early life-cycle stages of many species. Studies have shown that high acidity and aluminum levels disrupt
the salt and water balances in a fish’s blood, causing red blood cells to
rupture and increasing blood viscosity, thereby resulting in a lethal heart
attack.
In
addition, acid deposition is a major cause of the widespread decline of red
spruce in high elevation forests throughout the northeast. Since the 1960s, more than half of large
canopy trees in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of
Vermont and approximately one quarter of large canopy trees in the White
Mountains of New Hampshire have died. Recent research suggests that acid
deposition leaches calcium directly from cell membranes in spruce needles. This renders the needles more susceptible to
freezing damage, thereby reducing a tree’s cold tolerance and increasing the
occurrence of winter injury. In
addition, elevated aluminum levels in the soil, discussed above, limits the
ability of red spruce to take up water and nutrients through its roots, leading
to reduced tolerance for environmental stress.
There
is also growing evidence that sugar maple decline is linked to acid
deposition. Extensive mortality among
sugar maples in Pennsylvania appears to result from deficiencies of base
cations, together with other stresses such as insect defoliation or
drought. Acid deposition, and its
effect on soil chemistry is a predisposing factor in sugar maple decline.
Total
power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, and consequent deposition in the
northeast of sulfuric acid and other sulfur particles, has declined since 1990. However, emissions of nitrogen oxides have
remained essentially unchanged. Because
of this and given the extensive loss of acid-neutralizing base cations, the
mobilization of aluminum, and the accumulation of sulfur and nitrogen in the
soil, the chemical and, in turn, biological recovery of forest and aquatic
ecosystems will require extensive reductions of emissions. According to one analysis, even with an 80%
reduction in electric utility emissions beyond that required under the 1990 CAA
, recovery of certain watersheds to non-acidic levels will take 20-25 years and
recovery of soil base cation and aluminum levels will not occur until the year
2050. Many ecosystems are more
sensitive to the additional input of acids and acid forming compounds.
Nitrate
deposition also contributes to the eutrophication of coastal bays and
estuaries, which occurs when an excess of nitrogen causes algae growth that
threatens the survival of other aquatic species.
Another significant effect of power plant pollution is the impairment of visibility throughout the nation, including in our national parks and wilderness areas. Electric utility boilers are the predominant source of sulfur dioxide and a principal cause of reduced visibility.[7] Power plants annually release about 13 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, more than 60 percent of the national total. Data show that “visibility impairment caused by air pollution occurs virtually all the time at most national park and wilderness area monitoring stations.”[8] States are impacted by the problem of impaired visibility not only because it affects their residents’ quality of life, but also in more concrete economic terms due to lowered tourism, diminished appeal for new business activity, and adverse affects on businesses dependent on visitors to national parks and wilderness areas.
Climate
Change
Coal-burning power plants also emit CO2 which contributes to global climate change. This is the most pressing environmental challenge of the 21st century. The global nature of the climate change problem would be most efficiently addressed by comprehensive regulatory action at the national level.
The Administration’s recent report, U.S. Climate Action Report 2002,
projects that emissions of greenhouse gases
- primarily carbon dioxide produced from the combustion of fossil fuels
- will increase by 43 percent by 2020.
The Report also makes it clear that the question of whether
global climate change is occurring is no longer in doubt, only the precise rate
of change and the specific impacts of that change.
Some states are now initiating measures to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Massachusetts last year adopted state regulations requiring carbon dioxide reductions by power plants, and New Hampshire recently enacted “cap and trade” legislation. California’s legislature has just passed a bill that will lead to the “maximum feasible” reductions of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. New York is also considering a carbon cap. While individual states are prepared to lead the way, a strong national approach will allow for more efficient solutions that will better protect the American economy in the long run.
Conclusion
In sum, I urge the respected members of these Committees to review
critically the Administration’s actions on environmental issues, especially the
New Source Review program. Congress
intended the NSR program to protect and improve air quality and to encourage
the installation of cleaner plants.
Congress should reaffirm these goals and reject efforts to weaken the
New Source Review program.
[1] The Particulate-Related Health Benefits of Reducing Power Plant Emissions (“Particulate Report”), Abt Associates Inc., October 2000, at 5.1.
[2] Particulate Report, at 5.3.
[3] Id.
[4] Power Plants, Your Health and the Environment (“Power Plants”), Clean the Air, Washington, D.C., at 1.
[5] Children at Risk; How Air Pollution for Power Plants Threatens the Health of America’s Children, Clean Air Task Force, April 2002, at 1.
[6] Power to Kill, Clean Air Task Force, July 2001, at 4; Preliminary Analysis of the Benefits and Costs of Current New Source Review Litigation, Clean Air Task Force, June 2002.
[7] Protecting Visibility in National Parks and Wilderness Areas, National Academy of Science’s National Research Council (National Academy Press, 1993) at 2.
[8] 62 Federal Register 41,138-41,139 (July 31, 1997).