Now we get to see if the Illinois politicians who seized upon the BP pollution of Lake Michigan as a good way to show off their 'green' credentials are hypocrites or not. If they are not, they will also publicly criticize the owners of these coal plants who have successfully fought off being forced to comply with Clean Air laws for a long, long time.
And why did the EPA take so long to act? Blagojevich gave the polluters decades to comply, despicable.
(the coal plant in Pilsen, visible from my roof)
EPA cites coal plants:
Utility's 6 Illinois sites release too much soot, U.S. says
After years of declining to act on complaints from elected officials and neighborhood activists, federal regulators are cracking down on six coal-fired power plants that are some of the biggest contributors to dirty air in the Chicago area.
In documents made public Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Midwest Generation of extending the life of its aging power plants, including five in Chicago and the suburbs, without installing pollution controls required under the Clean Air Act.
The agency also cited the company, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, with releasing too much soot, or microscopic air pollution that can trigger asthma attacks and cause lung disease, heart problems and early deaths.
...older plants like those owned by Midwest Generation, most of which were built in the 1940s and 1950s, were exempted for years from pollution laws.
Regulators gradually realized many of these older plants had been updated, modified and expanded so many times that they should be considered new plants and forced to comply with tough pollution standards.
Several companies around the nation have settled federal lawsuits by agreeing to spend millions on new pollution controls. Environmental groups have been urging the EPA for more than a decade to take similar action against the Chicago-area power plants.
“This is long overdue but very welcome news,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's Midwest Clean Air Campaign.
Technorati Tags: corruption, environment, EPA, pollution
Dated July 31, the complaint comes two years after Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan wrote a scathing letter to state regulators documenting more than 7,600 pollution violations at the six power plants since 1999, the year Midwest Generation bought them from ComEd.At the time, the Illinois EPA agreed with Midwest Generation executives who argued that occasional bursts of soot from the plants were normal and nothing to worry about. Federal regulators also declined to get involved, though they later cited the Blommer Chocolate factory in the West Loop with similar violations involving cocoa powder pollution.
...Midwest Generation officials now will be called into the EPA's offices to discuss the case. Mary Gade, the agency's regional administrator, formerly worked for a law firm that represented the company and has recused herself from any involvement, a spokeswoman said.
Critics wondered about the timing of the complaint. Madigan and environmental groups have argued that the pollution problems should have been addressed last year, before state and federal regulators awarded Midwest Generation a new permit for the coal plants.
The allegations against the company involve a provision of the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review, which requires power plants to be retrofitted with pollution controls if they undergo major modifications.
Bush administration officials have tried several times to rewrite the law to make it easier for utilities to upgrade aging coal plants.
They continued to pursue a handful of lawsuits against polluters that were filed by the Clinton administration but generally have shied away from filing new cases.
In December, Midwest Generation agreed to make deep cuts in smog, soot and mercury pollution from the six plants by 2018. It also raised the possibility of shutting down the Pilsen, Little Village and Waukegan plants if improving them proves too expensive. [Let's hope!]
Brokered by the Blagojevich administration, the deal promises steady improvements in air quality throughout the Chicago area.
But environmental groups grumbled that it gave Midwest Generation too long to meet tougher limits.
“We never thought the federal EPA would step up to the plate and do what's right,” said Ann Alexander, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who formerly worked as Madigan's top assistant for environmental issues. “But Midwest Gen needed more pressure to clean up and this might provide that pressure.”
