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The NRDC-compiled data show:
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Illinois' electric sector ranked 16th
in industrial toxic air pollution in 2010, emitting nearly 4.7
million pounds of harmful chemicals, which accounted for 20 percent
of state pollution and about 2 percent of toxic pollution from all
U.S. power plants.
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Illinois ranked 12th among all states in industrial mercury air
pollution from power plants, with about 1,980 pounds emitted in
2010, which accounted for 69 percent of state mercury air pollution
and 3 percent of U.S. electric sector mercury pollution.
On the national level, the report found a 19 percent decrease
nationally in all air toxics emitted from power plants in 2010, the
most recent data available, compared with 2009 levels. The welcomed
drop, which also includes a 4 percent decrease in mercury emissions,
results from two key factors. One is the increasing use by power
companies of natural gas, which has become cheaper and is cleaner
burning than coal; the other is the installation of state-of-the-art
pollution controls by many plants -- in anticipation of new health
protections issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Toxic pollution is already being reduced as a result of EPA's
health-protecting standards. Thanks to the agency's latest
safeguards, millions of children and their families in the states
hardest hit by toxic air pollution from power plants will be able to
breathe easier," said John Walke, NRDC's clean-air director.
"But these protections are threatened," Walke said, "because
polluters are intent on persuading future Congresses or presidential
administrations to repeal them."
Finalized in 2011, EPA's mercury and air toxics standards will cut
mercury air pollution by 79 percent from 2010 levels, beginning in
2015.
One senator from Illinois stood up for protecting kids and our
communities by rejecting the attempt by Sen. James Inhofe, R.-Okla.,
to repeal the mercury and air toxics standard: Sen. Dick Durbin
opposed the Inhofe resolution and Sen. Mark Kirk did not vote.
Franz Matzner, NRDC associate director of government affairs, said:
"For too long, Americans have had no choice but to breathe toxic air
pollution. Thanks to the EPA, the air is getting cleaner. But we
need lawmakers who will help clean up the air we all breathe -- not
lawmakers who do the bidding of Big Polluters trying to repeal
safeguards that protect children's health. This and future
Congresses should let the EPA do its job so ALL Americans can
breathe easier."
In the second edition of "Toxic Power: How Power Plants Contaminate
Our Air and States," NRDC also found that coal- and oil-fired power
plants still contribute nearly half (44 percent) of all the toxic
air pollution reported to the Environmental Protection Agency's
Toxics Release Inventory. The report also ranks the states by the
amount of their toxic air pollution levels.
In an earlier assault on the EPA's new standards, the House passed a
bill to gut them last year; but a similar measure in June failed in
the Senate.
Compared with 2010 levels, the standard will reduce mercury
pollution from 34 tons to 7 tons, a 79 percent reduction, by 2015.
Sulfur dioxide pollution will be reduced from 5,140,000 tons in 2010
to 1,900,000 tons in 2015, a 63 percent reduction. Another dangerous
acid gas, hydrochloric acid, will be reduced from 106,000 tons in
2010 to 5,500 tons in 2015, a 95 percent reduction.
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With those and other pollution reductions resulting from the
standard, as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma
attacks, 5,700 hospital visits, 4,700 heart attacks and 2,800 cases
of chronic bronchitis will be avoided in 2016. The public health
improvements are also estimated to save $37 billion
to $90 billion in health costs and prevent up to 540,000 missed work
or "sick" days each year.
Despite the overall reductions in total emissions, 18 of the "Toxic
20" from 2009 remain in the 2010 list released Thursday, although
several states have made significant improvements highlighted in the
report.
The states on the Toxic 20 list (from worst to best) are:
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Kentucky
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Ohio
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Pennsylvania
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Indiana
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West Virginia
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Florida
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Michigan
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North Carolina
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Georgia
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Texas
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Tennessee
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Virginia
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South Carolina
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Alabama
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Missouri
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Illinois
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Mississippi
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Wisconsin
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Maryland
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Delaware
___ About the data: The EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, known as the TRI, is a national
database of toxic emissions self-reported by industrial sources.
Power plants report emissions of mercury, hydrochloric acid and
other hazardous metals.
NRDC released the first Toxic 20 report in July 2011. The analysis
used publicly available data in the TRI to rank states by air
pollution levels from 2009. Using the same methodology, the current
analysis compared TRI emissions reported for 2010 from the electric
utilities sector with those from other sectors and ranked sources by
total emissions by sector. The analysis identifies top emitting
power plants based on toxic emissions reported to TRI.
For the full methodology, see the analysis "Toxic Power: How Power
Plants Contaminate Our Air and States," available at http://www.nrdc.org/air/
toxic-power-presentation.asp.
___
The Natural Resources Defense Council is an international nonprofit
environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and
online activists. Since 1970, the organization's lawyers, scientists
and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the
world's natural resources, public health and the environment. NRDC
has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana and Beijing. For more
information, visit http://www.nrdc.org/ and follow on Twitter: @NRDC.
[Text from file
received from the Natural Resources
Defense Council]
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