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| Press Release: EDF Calls for Immediate Corrective Action for Power Plant Pollution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Tony Kreindler, (202) 572-3378 or (202) 210-5791, akreindler@edf.org
Vickie Patton, (720) 837-6239, vpatton@edf.org (Washington – July 11, 2008) A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. today overturned a clean air blueprint adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 to cut dangerous sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions from power plants across 28 eastern states and Washington, D.C., dubbed the “Clean Air Interstate Rule.”
When discharged from tall smokestacks, sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen drift tens and hundreds of miles downwind where they exact a severe toll on human health and the environment. EPA estimated the program, one of the most health protective adopted under the Clean Air Act, would annually prevent 17,000 premature deaths by 2015. Today, the court found that EPA’s program had “several fatal flaws” and vacated the rule. The court reinstated a summertime program to cut smog-forming oxides of nitrogen from power plants across the East to minimize disruption in protecting human health.
Several other recent judicial decisions affect EPA’s authority to address pollution from the power sector. In February, the same court overturned a trading program for mercury from coal-fired power plants, putting the Agency back on the path of cutting toxic mercury pollution through the maximum reductions at each plant. In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed EPA’s authority to regulate global warming under existing clean air laws.
“The government should take immediate corrective action to protect the millions of Americans hard hit by power plant pollution,” said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel at Environmental Defense Fund. “Power plants must do their part to cut the smog that blankets our cities, the mercury that threatens our children’s development and the greenhouse gases that are recklessly warming the planet. Cost-effective solutions are at hand to protect human health and the environment from power plant pollution while ensuring the steady flow of affordable electricity.”
The case, North Carolina, et al. v. EPA, No. 05-1244, was decided in a per curiam opinion by Judges Sentelle, Rogers and Brown who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
The Clean Air Interstate Rule was implemented in two phases beginning in January 1, 2009 for oxides of nitrogen and 2010 for sulfur dioxide. EPA estimated that in 2010 the program would reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 4.3 million tons across the eastern U.S. and 5.4 million tons in 2015. Smog-forming oxides of nitrogen would be reduced 2 million tons annually under full program implementation, about 60% over today’s levels.
EPA also projected that the program, when fully carried out, would save 17,000 lives annually and secure health benefits that far outweighed estimated compliance costs. The court agreed with North Carolina that EPA must consider faster reductions that better reflect states’ obligations to restore healthy air and making pollution cuts that help prevent states from backsliding into non-compliance with health-based standards. The court also agreed with North Carolina that EPA must tailor pollution cuts in upwind states with the level of impacts wrought on downwind jurisdictions.
The court also agreed with industry litigants that EPA erred in relying on or otherwise interfering with the allowance trading system established to address acid rain while affirming EPA’s broad remedial powers to require interstate air pollution abatement to protect human health. The court agreed with gas-based utilities that EPA unfairly credited coal-based utilities in designing the program. Finally, the court rejected utility claims seeking to exclude Florida and West Texas from the program.
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About Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Defense Fund is at the forefront of an innovation revolution, developing new solutions that protect the natural world while growing the economy. Founded in 1967 and representing more than 500,000 members, the group creates powerful economic incentives by working with market leaders and relying on rigorous science. For more information, visit edf.org.
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| Press Release: Conservation Program Changes Would Help Wyoming Ranchers Improve Wildlife Habitat, Keep Species Off Endangered List
EDF’s recommendations include:
“Range management on Wyoming’s grasslands is mostly oriented toward improving livestock production,” said Toombs. “Our analysis shows how we can continue to help ranchers with livestock production, but at the same time better address overall rangeland health and wildlife habitat. By implementing a few relatively straightforward changes, we could help keep grassland birds off the endangered species list.”
Visit the Web site (http://edf.org/wygrasslandbirds) for more information or to see the entire report.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sharyn Stein, Environmental Defense Fund, 202-572-3396 or sstein@edf.org
(Boulder, CO – June 30, 2008) – A dozen species of native Wyoming birds might be kept off the endangered species list with some improvements to federal conservation programs that also would continue to help the state’s ranching economy. That’s the conclusion of a new study by a leading national conservation organization.
The report by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) analyzes federal conservation programs in the Equality State and is titled “Are Wyoming Range Practices Working at Cross-purposes with Wildlife Habitat Goals?” The study examines a wide range of programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) from 2003 to 2007. It concludes that federal government conservation programs in Wyoming get good grades overall, but basic improvements could make them more successful for ranchers and wildlife alike.
“These changes would be a win-win situation for Wyoming,” said Ted Toombs, an ecologist in the Boulder, CO office of EDF. “If we make sure that the twin rangeland and wildlife goals of NRCS work well together, we can double the benefits of limited funding resources. We can also help ensure that Wyoming maintains healthy wildlife populations, and we can prevent the need to add species to the endangered list.”
Eastern Wyoming has 8.6 million acres of native grasslands, most of which are privately owned. NRCS programs are designed to help ranchers manage livestock production on their grasslands in environmentally responsible ways, but right now the programs are not reaching their full potential. EDF’s report shows what aspects of the programs are working well, and lists changes that could help reverse the declining populations of a dozen native birds while also maintaining cattle production.
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