FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2002       
CONTACT: David Ponder, 406-243-2908


Missoula, Montana—Most of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants, including the Colstrip and J.E. Corette plants in Montana, are actually getting dirtier, not cleaner.  According to a new report released today by the Clear the Air Campaign. “Darkening Skies: Trends Toward Increasing Power Plant Emissions” comes just weeks after the release of the Bush Administration’s highly-touted “Clear Skies” power plant initiative–and demonstrates significant inherent flaws in the President’s approach.

“Power plants across the country are dramatically dirtier in 2000 than in 1995.  They emitted tens of thousands of tons of soot-forming sulfur dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming,” said David Ponder, Executive Director of MontPIRG.  “This pollution causes serious health problems, triggering asthma attacks, heart attacks and even causing premature death.”
 
According to the new report, hundreds of power plants emit more pollution today than just a few years ago, many increasing by thousands of tons per year.  This is despite the Clean Air Act’s “Acid Rain” program, which has been in place for a decade and is frequently hailed as a great success.  Though the Acid Rain program has resulted in pollution cuts on a nationwide scale, its “cap and trade” approach allows individual plants to increase emissions if they buy “pollution credits” from other plants that have cut their emissions more deeply than required.  Such increases can have dramatic public health and environmental impacts on the communities adjacent to those power plants.  Instead of crafting a plan that would make every power plant clean up and thus avoid these “hotspots,” the Bush plan would actually expand the concept of “cap and trade” to include mercury, a toxic pollutant.

"It's astonishing that the political leadership of the world's wealthiest nation continues to insist on medieval pollution-control policies that contaminate important food sources such as fish," says Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited. "We already have far too many health advisories for fish consumption in Montana because of air and water pollution. It's crazy. We invite anglers from around the nation to fish our storied waters, but then we tell them, oh, watch out for mercury poisoning."  According to the Environmental Working Group power plants in Montana released an estimated 1,129 pounds of mercury into the environment.  The state advises against eating fish caught in 321,858 acres of lakes and 34 miles of its rivers due to mercury poisoning risks.

By analyzing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions data from 1995 and 2000, “Darkening Skies” finds that:

• 300 of the 500 dirtiest power plants increased their emissions of sulfur dioxide, the pollution that forms “fine particle” soot and causes asthma attacks, heart disease and even death.  New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this month shows that this pollution may also cause lung cancer.  Fortunately, both of the Colstrip and J.E. Corette plants have reduced these harmful emissions.
• 263 of the 500 dirtiest power plants increased their emissions of nitrogen oxides, the pollution that forms ozone smog and can trigger asthma attacks.  New research published last month shows that this pollution may actually cause asthma in athletic children.  While the J.E. Corette plant reduced NOx emissions, the increase in emissions from the Colstrip facilities resulted in a net increase of more than 4,000 tons a year.
• All 500 of the most polluting power plants increased carbon dioxide emissions by thirteen percent in the six years studied. The gas forms a heat-trapping blanket in the atmosphere that leads to global warming. CO2 from coal plants in Montana increased by more than 1.3 million tons a year between 1995
• and 2000. 

UM Forestry Professor Steve Running, PhD states, “No doubts remain among credible scientists that a global warming trend is now well under way, and that CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning are a major cause of this warming.”

“The lesson learned is that we cannot rely on voluntary limits to ensure pollution reductions where they are needed most, where people are suffering most from smog and soot in the air.  The answer is to combine mandatory limits with modern pollution standards for all plants and enforce current Clean Air Act rules,” concluded Ponder.

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MontPIRG is a statewide public interest organization with more than 5,000 members.

The report can viewed on line at www.cleartheair.org

B-roll is available for television reporters.  Footage includes shots of power plants, MDs talking about health impacts of power plant pollution, kids with inhalers, etc.

First Feed:
Date: April 4, 2002
Time: 13:30 ET-13:45 ET
Satellite: Telestar 5, Transp. 5
Satellite type: C-Band
Downlink freq: 3800
Downlink Polarity: vertical
Orbital position: 97 degrees W
Audio: 6.2, 6.8

Second Feed:
Date: April 4, 2002
Time: 16:00 ET-16:15 ET
Satellite: Telestar 5, Transp. 5
Satellite type: C-Band
Downlink freq: 3800
Downlink Polarity: vertical
Orbital position: 97 degrees W
Audio: 6.2, 6.8