Court’s Decision Could Cut Smokestack Pollution Across Eastern U.S.
Washington, DC – On behalf of Environment North Carolina, NC
Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense; the Southern Environmental Law Center
argued before the Supreme Court today in a case against Duke Energy that could
lead to the drastic clean up of power plant pollution across the Eastern United
States.
“The court’s decision could lead to a major reduction of over
one million tons of health-threatening pollution across the country,” said Blan
Holman, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center
At stake are emissions of soot- and smog-forming pollutants
from smokestacks. Fine soot particles
penetrate deep into the human lung when inhaled, contributing to respiratory
disease, heart attacks, and even early death.
Smog, or ozone, triggers asthma attacks and causes long-term lung
damage.
“Slashing emissions from smokestacks across the region would
bring much-needed relief to North Carolina,
where air pollution continues to trigger asthma attacks, missed school days,
and even early death,” added Elizabeth Ouzts, State Director of Environment
North Carolina.
The plaintiffs in the case argued that Duke Energy violated
the New Source Review provision of the nation’s Clean Air Act between 1988 and
2000, when it spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading eight coal-fired
power plants in North and South Carolina
without installing the modern pollution controls the law required.
Similar suits are pending against the nation's largest
utilities, targeting plants in the South and Midwest. According to government data, the units
subject to enforcement suits emitted over 1.6 million tons of soot-forming
sulfur dioxide and over 300,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide in 2005.
The case against Duke Energy is the only case to have
reached the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court finds that Duke Energy violated the
Clean Air Act, other utilities involved in similar litigation could be required
to install modern pollution controls that would cut those emissions by as much
as 90 percent. The court’s decision
could also impact the embattled New Source Review program itself, which applies
to some 17,000 power plants and other industrial facilities across the
country.
Under the New Source Review program, the nation's oldest
power plants are required to install modern pollution controls when
significantly upgrading or expanding their facilities. To skirt this provision of the law, Duke
Energy claimed it was performing “routine maintenance,” rather than significant
upgrades, on its plants in the Carolinas.
The federal government brought the original suit against
Duke Energy in 2000, with environmental groups intervening on the
administration’s side. But when a Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June 2005 in favor of the power company, the
government opted not to seek Supreme Court review. Environmental groups continued to argue for
an appeal to the Supreme Court, and in May the Court announced it would hear
the case. The federal government then
re-joined the suit.
