ValleyWatch

August 21, 2012-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

It is truly a sad day for people in the tri-state of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. The District Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington struck down an EPA rule designed to improve the health of citizens of this region and all of the eastern half of the nation. The judges were split 2-1 with an angry 44 page dissent from Judge Judith Rogers.

AEP’s Rockport power plant should not be impacted by the Court’s ruling today since it is already under a court order to install scrubbers on both of its 1300 megawatt units by 2018. Other power plants in the region might be impacted however, and continue to operate without pollution controls for years to come if the DC Court’s ruling is allowed to stand. Photo © 2003 John Blair.

Called, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, the rule was finalized in July 2011 to force coal burning power plants to install pollution controls for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that, in turn, would significantly reduce the formation of fine particle pollution in the form of sulfates and nitrates across much of the United States.

When EPA published the rule it said it would result in a 73% reduction in SO2 emissions by 73% and NOX emissions by 54% improving the overall health of more than 240 million Americans.

“This decision allows harmful power plant air pollution to continue to aggravate major health problems and foul up our air. This is a loss for all of us, but especially for those living downwind from major polluters,” said John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“This rule would have prevented thousands of premature deaths and saved tens of billions of dollars a year in health costs, but two judges blocked that from happening and forced EPA to further delay long overdue health safeguards for Americans.”

“The EPA can – and should – immediately appeal this decision. The dissenting judge correctly follows the Clean Air Act and prior rulings by this court. The majority opinion is an outlier at odds with the court’s own rulings as well as the Clean Air Act,” Walke said.

The same court with differing judges had already struck down the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2008 but on both occasions told EPA to continue acting as if the CAIR rule was still in effect.

The ruling can be downloaded at: http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/19346B280C78405C85257A61004DC0E5/$file/11-1302-1390314.pdf

July 27, 2012-by Matthew Wald and John Schwartz in the New York Times

WASHINGTON — From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms.

July 17, 2012-by Ron Regan, News Channel 5, in Cleveland. Editors Note: Valley Watch president, John Blair traveled to Cleveland in 2007 specifically to inform Cleveland’s City Council of the bad deal they were making in buying into both Meigs County and the Prairie State facility. They failed to listen. It should also be noted that there are more than thirty Indiana communities that bought into this plant under the auspices of the Indiana Municipal Power Authority headed by Raj Rao, who now also serves as Chairman of the Prairie State power plant.

When Blair was in Cleveland, he found it ironic that the discussion inside was about two coal plants when just outside the Council Chambers, was this operating wind turbine that provides power to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Photo © 2007, John Blair.

A Cleveland councilman says rate payers are “getting hosed” in a $5 billion electric power plant deal that produced zero electricity for months.

Cleveland councilman Mike Polensek raised serious questions about the deal during an extended interview following an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation into the plant.

The Prairie State Power Plant was scheduled to go online last December, but our investigation found a “failure” in fans removing toxic exhaust gas in March stopped the plant from operating.

Cleveland and 60 other cities across Ohio are partial owners of the plant through the sale of municipal bonds in a deal involving American Municipal Power, a non profit corporation that owns and operates electrical facilities.

Meanwhile, interest on bond payments resulted in Cleveland paying a quarter million dollars a month beginning last March, while the plant produced zero electricity.

The plant began producing electricity last month in Unit 1, but Unit 2 is not expected to be operating until the end of the year.

A complete list of cities and what they were charged can be found on our exclusive interactive map.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/cleveland-councilman-says-ratepayers-getting-hosed-in-electric-deal-involving-5-billion-plant#ixzz20tXCvafv

July 12, 2012 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

Early this week came an end to an era. My “surrogate” mother passed from this Earth at the age of 91. Louise Gerbing was a warrior for nature and spent much of her “retired” life fighting pollution in the Ohio Valley.

Louise was a gentle soul, her footprint negligible, living simply so that others could simply live. She was always ready to help others accomplish their goals and worked tirelessly to improve all of our lives.

But the warrior side of her was evident when she took it upon herself to organize a literal grandmas’ army to fight polluters like Union Carbide and BASF from locating their pollution factories in the Evansville air and watersheds.

We all owe her for her efforts. But I owe her much more. She gave me guidance and support as Valley Watch adapted to an ever changing lower Ohio River Valley. She asked nothing in return.

Perhaps some day, citizens of this area will recognize people like Louise for their efforts on everyone’s behalf to improve the basic things like the air and water vital to our very existence. Until then, it is important to understand that it is through the efforts of people like Louise Gerbing true progress happens and we will be forever grateful.

July 11, 2012-by Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation

Can dirty air be bad for the brain? A new study suggests that smog and other air pollutants may contribute to memory loss and dementia.

The findings, part of a large and ongoing study of nurses in their 70s, found that long-term exposure to air pollution may speed up cognitive decline in older adults. Women who lived in areas with the worst quality air scored lower on tests of memory and thinking than those who lived in cleaner areas.

Exposure to polluted air contributed to the equivalent of about a two-year decline in brain function, which might lead to an earlier onset of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. That translates to about two million cases of Alzheimer’s over a 40-year period, the researchers estimate.

The report, from the Archives of Internal Medicine, is one of the few to study the effects of air pollution on brain health.

It is difficult to establish a direct link between environmental toxins and a disease like Alzheimer’s, because so many factors are involved, and correlation does not equal causation. But this study examined thinking skills over a four-year period and involved a large sample size of more than 19,000 women living in different parts of the United States. Continue reading →

July 4, 2012-by Yoram Bauman and Shi-Ling Hsu in the New York Times

June 21, 2012 – West Viginia Senator, Jay Rockefeller makes an impassioned plea to his constituents to change their attitude toward EPA’s efforts to protect them and others through rule making.

Yesterday, he defended EPA’s efforts to reduce toxic emissions from power plants and admonishes coal operators and organizations that their “all or nothing” approach using “scare tactics” will fail in the end.