Today, SACE released a new report on Dry Sorbent Injection (DSI) technology – a troubling new sulfur dioxide control method recently touted by some utilities as a cheap, quick answer to comply with EPA’s new mercury and air toxics (MATS) regulations. SACE commissioned the report from Dr. Ranajit (Ron) Sahu, a leading environmental engineering consultant, after learning that the Tennessee [...]
On Friday, April 19, the Environmental Protection Agency met a court-ordered deadline and released long-awaited draft Coal Water Pollution Standards (also known as Effluent Limitation Guidelines or ELGs). These standards, originally scheduled for completion in 2012, are needed to replace woefully outdated rules to regulate wastewater discharges from coal ash, the toxic residue remaining when coal [...]
Today, the 8 Directors who sit on the Board of the Tennessee Valley Authority gathered in Columbia, TN for one of its quarterly board meetings (the 9th Director seat remains open after the failure to reappoint Dr. Marilyn Brown). As usual, the board meeting began with a public listening session, in which members of the public may [...]
Saturday, April 13, was set to be the day for the Environmental Protection Agency to release final regulations limiting carbon pollution from new power plants. April 13 came and went, however, with no final regulations from EPA. Instead, on Friday April 12, EPA announced that it would delay issuance of the final rule – but gave no [...]
On March 28, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a revised final Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) rule for new air emission sources (i.e. new power plants). The revised final rule is slightly weaker than the original December 2011 rule, due in part to power plant developers’ complaints that the original standard was unattainable, but [...]
Last week I had the privilege of accompanying experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) on a three-day tour of Georgia and Alabama to highlight coal plants that should be considered for retirement. UCS is a national, science-based non-profit that advocates for policy decisions that are based on credible research. UCS’s report, Ripe for [...]
This guest post was written by Andrea Delgado, EarthJustice and was originally published here. Your action is urgently needed to stop multiple anti-environmental riders that threaten to allow more toxic pollution in our air and water by tying EPA’s hands and rolling back key provisions of the long-trusted Clean Air Act. Click here to tell your senators to [...]
Over the last few weeks several Southeastern states introduced coal ash-related legislation. Presumably these actions are in response to the ongoing delay of the Obama Administration to direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize national coal ash rules. The lack of guidance from EPA actually led North Carolina Representative Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro) to testify [...]
There’s nothing like a heaping serving of data to really drive a point home – and that’s exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency does with its most recent report of plant-by-plant emissions data. EPA’s 2011 Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program report is loaded with emissions data from 1,594 fossil fuel plants across the nation. The resoundingly [...]
Four years ago the Kingston coal ash disaster put a spotlight on the need for federal coal ash regulations when a dam failed, releasing one billion gallons of the toxic waste, poisoning 300 acres and 2 nearby rivers. Since Kingston, there have been numerous attempts to push inadequate coal ash regulations through Congress. Last year, a report [...]