FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT: Sandy
Bahr, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org or (602) 999-5790
February 11, 2013
The Sierra Club Calls on the State
Legislature to Support Clean Air Measures at Arizona Coal Plants
PHOENIX – A
special joint meeting of the State Legislature – comprising of the Senate
Committee on Government and Environment and the House Committee on Energy,
Environment and Natural Resources – begins
today discussions on the recent air pollution safeguards issued for the
Navajo, Apache, Cholla, and Coronado coal plants.
In response, Sandy Bahr, Chapter Director
of the Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter issued the following statement:
“The Environmental Protection Agency has announced long-awaited air
quality protections for several of Arizona’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants”
said Sandy Bahr in a statement sent to the State Legislature. “These protections will limit dangerous
emissions that pollute skies over Arizona’s pristine national parks, including
Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest, better protecting public health and saving
Arizonans millions of dollars in health costs.”
“These standards are 35 years in the making, resulting from 1977
revisions of the Clean Air Act, which aimed at reducing pollution over America’s
most pristine public lands” Bahr continued in her statement. “In recent years, the federal government has
missed numerous court-ordered deadlines to implement the 1977 Congressional
directive to protect our national parks, which contribute billions in economic
activity for local communities across the country, including in Arizona.”
As outlined, the new safeguards will require operators of the Apache,
Cholla, and Coronado coal plants to install modern pollution reduction
equipment to limit nitrogen oxide emissions by nearly 90 percent. Nitrogen oxide is a key ingredient of smog,
one of America’s most dangerous forms of pollution. That equipment, known as selective catalytic
reduction, is now in wide use at over 200 coal-fired power units across the
country, including Arizona’s Springerville Generating Station.
Every year, pollution from
the Apache, Coronado, and Cholla coal plants cause nearly 41 deaths, 63 heart
attacks, 747 asthma attacks, 30 hospital admissions, 38 emergency room visits,
and 26 cases of chronic bronchitis, according to data from the Clean Air Task
Force.[i] All told, the three coal plants cost Arizonans
almost $314 million dollars in health expenses every year.
Navajo Generating Station
The EPA has also announced
plans to clean up the Navajo Generating Station (NGS), located only 12 miles
from one of our country’s most cherished national parks –Grand Canyon. NGS is a major source of industrial pollution
for the region, obscuring scenic views of Grand Canyon and ten other designated
parks and wilderness areas throughout the Southwest, including Mesa Verde and
Canyonlands national parks. The Navajo
Generating Station coal plant threatens the annual economic benefit of $687
million to the regional economy from Grand Canyon visitors, as well as the
thousands of jobs that depend on the wild beauty and natural health of the
region.[ii]
Haze-forming pollution, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and
particulates, not only reduces visibility but also poses severe health risks.[iii] The Clean Air Task Force estimates that
pollution from NGS costs more than $127 million every year[iv] for health care by
contributing to asthma attacks, severe respiratory problems, lung disease,
heart complications, and premature death.
Clean Air Act protections
The Environmental Protection Agency carefully looked at five factors
in making its Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) pollution controls
determination. These factors were the
cost of compliance, the energy and non-air quality environmental impacts of
compliance, any existing pollution control technology in use at the source, the
remaining useful life of the source, and the degree of visibility improvements that
may reasonably be anticipated from the use of BART.
“As we move forward to meet these Clean Air Act protections for all of
these power plants and other facilities as well, it is important to support the
protections put in place for cleaning up Cholla, Coronado, and Apache Generating
Stations and to work for clean up and a transition plan at NGS” continued
Bahr. “There are a lot of uncertainties
that need to be resolved, but we do know that continuing to rely on coal-fired
power plants risks our health, our national icons, such as Grand Canyon, and
will only get costlier. Coal is already being
outcompeted in the energy market[v].”
A transition to clean energy
jobs
Jobs that are relying on the coal industry will continue to be at risk
if we don’t do something right now – investing in a transition to clean energy
jobs to make sure that the local workforce is taken care of must be a priority.
The Bureau of Land Management estimates
that renewable potential on public lands in Arizona could create approximately
2,505 MW of renewable energy, primarily solar and wind, on public lands alone. Developing these resources is estimated to create
approximately 16,358 jobs over the span on 20 years.[vi] The future plans for all of these facilities should
include taking care of their workforce. After
profiting for decades and polluting local communities, owners have a
responsibility to ensure that transition plans are in place as we move to
generating more of our electricity from clean renewable energy sources and
reducing our energy consumption through energy efficiency measures.
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