Sierra Club Initiates Legal Action to Clean Up Coal Plant Proposal
Urges Governor to link approval of new power plants to cleaning up old ones and reduce state’s air pollution woes
Chicago, IL: Today Sierra Club initiated legal action to stop the construction of a giant coal-fired power plant in Benton, Franklin County, Illinois. Citing the serious health problems caused by coal plant pollution, the Sierra Club is pushing Enviropower to abandon its original proposal and instead to build a state-of-the-art power plant with modern pollution controls. Sierra Club is also urging Governor Blagojevich to condition state approval and funding of new power plants on closing the state’s oldest and dirtiest power plants.
“We are preparing to sue Enviropower because its giant coal-fired power plant lacks modern pollution controls and threatens Illinois residents from Carbondale to Waukegan,” explained Verena Owen, Chair of Sierra Club’s Clean Air Campaign. “Air pollution is a serious health threat to our families and Enviropower needs to upgrade its proposal to better protect Illinois residents.”
Sierra Club wants Enviropower to apply for a new permit and to install state-of-the-art pollution controls at its proposed power plant. Since Enviropower received its permit in 2001 there have been significant technological advances in ways to burn coal, as well as cleaner fuels, energy efficiency, and cost-effective wind power.
“Instead of building an outdated power plant that promises more asthma attacks, heart attacks, and lung cancer, Enviropower must redo its plans and build a state-of-the-art power plant that meets our needs for reliable and affordable power without sacrificing our quality of life,” said Kay Tippy, a Southern Illinois Sierra Club member who is concerned about mercury pollution in the area's lakes where her family enjoys fishing. “This Texas-based company must protect Illinois residents if it wants to do business in this state.”
Sierra Club also urged Governor Blagojevich to not turn his back on Illinois' families. “Governor Blagojevich must step in and require that new power plants install modern pollution controls and protect Illinois residents,” said Tippy. “Approval of new power plants must be conditioned on closing the state's existing, dirty coal plants, the vast majority of which are not burning Illinois coal,” she added.
Despite his promise to clean up the state’s existing twenty-two coal plants, Governor Rod Blagojevich is entering the second half of his first term without any plans to force the out-of-state owners of the state’s aging fleet of coal plants to install modern pollution controls.
Sierra Club is commencing this legal action by serving Enviropower with a formal notice of its intent to sue for proposing to construct a coal plant without a valid permit. Under the federal Clean Air Act citizen groups must in most instances give corporations, as well as U.S. EPA and the State, a formal 60-day notice before filing suit in federal district court.
The outdated Enviropower coal plant proposal is part of a larger “Coal Rush” threat across Illinois and the United States. In Illinois there are twelve giant coal-fired power plant proposals in various stages of planning and permitting, more than any other state in the Nation. Across the United States over 100 coal plant proposals are under consideration.
Sierra Club is working to raise public awareness about the threat that this “Coal Rush” poses to clean air and clean water in Illiniois and the urgent need for Governor Blagojevich to limit state approval and funding of new power plants to those that agree to install state-of-the-art pollution controls and to close the state’s oldest, dirtiest coal plants. Illinois has twenty-two old coal plants all built before the 1970 Clean Air Act and all lack modern pollution controls. Most of the existing plants are owned by out-of-state corporations, such as California’s Edison International, and they burn less than 15 percent Illinois coal in their power plants.
HEALTH FACTS: From the Website of the Clean Air Task Force
US EPA's own consultants estimate that power plant pollution causes 1,356 premature deaths every year in Illinois. This pollution also causes – again just in Illinois -- 195,698 lost work days, 1,333 hospitalizations and 33,986 asthma attacks every year, 2,007 of the asthma attacks are so severe they require a visit to the emergency room.
Researchers affiliated with the American Cancer Society found that people living in polluted cities, such as Chicago, have a 12 percent increased risk of cardiopulmonary death and a 16 percent increased risk of lung cancer. Based on US EPA data, each year, 156 lung cancer deaths and 2,361 heart attacks in Illinois are attributable to power plant pollution.
Children are the most susceptible to power plant air pollution. In Illinois, 2,746,764 children live within 30 miles of a power plant, the area in which the greatest health impacts are felt. Additionally, researchers have found that infants in areas with high levels of pollution face a 26 percent increased risk of SIDS and a 40 percent increased risk of respiratory death.
Coal plants are also responsible for 41 percent of the mercury emitted in the U.S. The Illinois Department of Health has issued a fish consumption advisory for ALL of the State’s rivers and lakes (32,190 miles of river and 309,340 acres of lake) due to the risks of mercury contamination. If ingested, mercury can cause serious brain damage, including delayed development and cognitive deficits, language difficulties, and problems with motor function, attention, and memory. Children can be exposed to mercury in the womb or through breast milk if their mothers ingest mercury-tainted fish or by eating contaminated fish themselves.
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