Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Haze Plan for Montana Delays Clean Air for Hundreds of Years

WildEarth Guardians Calls out EPA on Absurd Proposal, Calls for Real Clean Energy Solutions
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Montana—A plan to cut haze in Montana falls so short in protecting public health and clean air that it will take more than 400 years to succeed, ensuring that the Big Sky State will continue to be shrouded in air pollution from dirty energy indefinitely. 

“This ‘Do Nothing Never’ plan is beyond absurd,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “With our health, our environment, and our clean energy future at stake, we deserve something better than this laughable plan that actually puts off clean air until the year 2400.”

Spurred by a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians in 2011 over the EPA’s failure to clean up haze in National Parks and wilderness areas as required by the Clean Air Act, the plan was supposed to curb air pollution and promote clean energy in Montana.  Ultimately, the plan is required to restore natural visibility conditions in the nation’s most cherished landscapes.

However, in comments submitted late on June 19th, WildEarth Guardians revealed that the EPA’s plan not only fails to require meaningful pollution cuts from the State’s dirty coal-fired power plants, but would take up to 437 years to restore visibility in Montana’s treasured Parks and wilderness areas.

Worse, the EPA itself admits in its proposal that stronger, cost-effective pollution controls could restore visibility much sooner, in many cases before 2064.

“If the air is so bad you can see it, there’s a serious problem,” said Nichols.  “Air quality in National Parks and wilderness areas is a bellwether for the health of our air everywhere.  The EPA should be doing everything it can to restore our clean air as quickly as possible.”

The need to reduce haze is critical in Montana.  Some of the states most iconic landscapes—including Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area—are on average nine times hazier than normal.  The same pollutants that form haze also negatively impact public health.

In Montana, the key sources of haze forming pollution are the state’s coal-fired power plants, including the 2,200 megawatt Colstrip power plant, which is the second largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi River.  These plants release thousands of tons of haze forming nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide gases.  Other sources include cement kilns.

Although the proposal would achieve nominal emission reductions from these dirty energy plants—6,237 tons of nitrogen oxides and 8,615 tons of sulfur dioxide annually—by the EPA’s own admission the proposal is not good enough.  In the case of one source of air pollution, the J.E. Corette coal-fired power plant in Billings, the proposal would actually allow 2,000 tons of more air pollution to be released. 

Yet according to the proposal, using cost-effective emission controls just at the state’s coal-fired power plants could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 17,000 tons annually.  Using a technology called “selective catalytic reduction,” which the EPA has required in other states (including New Mexico and Colorado), more than 14,000 tons of nitrogen oxides could be reduced just from the Colstrip power plant.  See table below.

 In its comments, WildEarth Guardians is called on the EPA to require stronger pollution controls and to prioritize clean energy to restore clean air in Montana.  Under a settlement agreement with WildEarth Guardians, the EPA must finalize its haze plan by August of 2012.