Clean Air, Clean Jobs

Old, dirty coal plants to close or convert

With an historic victory for Colorado’s environment — closing or converting two of our oldest, dirtiest coal plants to cleaner energy sources — we’re moving Colorado from a coal-powered past toward a clean-energy future. Colorado can and should be powered by the sun and wind, keeping our blue skies blue, improving public health, creating clean-energy jobs, and ending our reliance on dirty, dangerous fossil fuels.

Back in 2010, energy companies, environmentalists and members of former Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration came together to chart a bold new course for clean air in Colorado. Naturally, the coal companies fought back, and it was “all hands on deck” to show state officials that the transition to clean energy has strong public support.

Environment Colorado members and our allies delivered hundreds of signatures to the Public Utilities Commission, urging its members to resist pressure from polluters to roll back the Clean Air, Clean Jobs plan.

In December, 2010, the Public Utilities Commission issued its ruling: four major coal units must close and a fifth must stop burning coal by 2017.

Finally, A bill to approve the Regional Haze Plan — sponsored by House Speaker Frank McNulty (Highlands Ranch) and Senate Majority Leader John Morse (Colorado Springs) — passed by a bipartisan vote in late April.

Toxic chemicals still threaten our health

The Clean Air, Clean Jobs plan is a huge victory for our environment and our health, but much work remains to be done. Nationwide, coal-fired power plants spew hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic mercury into our air every year, which falls to earth in the form of rain and contaminates rivers, lakes and streams.

Fortunately, new EPA clean air standards — which we helped win — will cut mercury pollution by 90%. The coal industry and their friends in Congress are trying to roll back these standards, but we’re urging Congress to let EPA do its job and protect public health.

Studies show that one in six women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her bloodstream to put her child at risk of health effects should she become pregnant. This means that more than 689,000 out of the 4.1 million babies born every year could be exposed to dangerous levels of mercury.

The consequences are serious: Children who are exposed to even low-dosage levels of mercury in the womb can have impaired brain functions, including verbal, attention, motor-control, and language deficits, as well as lower IQs.  When these children are monitored at ages 7 and 14, these impairments still exist — suggesting that the damage caused by mercury may be irreversible.
 
Wildlife that is exposed to mercury may have develop more slowly, have reduced fertility or even die, depending on the level of exposure. And it doesn’t take much: Scientists found that a gram of mercury — about a drop — deposited in a mid-sized lake in Wisconsin over the course of a year was enough to account for all of the mercury subsequently found in that lake’s fish population.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, mercury impairs 3,781 bodies of water across the country, and 6,363,707 acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds in the United States are contaminated by mercury pollution.

With your help, we can save 46,000 lives

Recently, the EPA moved ahead with efforts to significantly reduce mercury, soot and smog pollution, announcing historic new emissions standards that could save 46,000 lives a year. Unfortunately, polluters and their allies in Congress launched a coordinated attack to block these critical safeguards.

We’re working closely with our allies in the public health community, lobbying key Senators, and rallying thousands of activists stand up for public health.

It won’t be easy, but if enough of us speak out, we can drown out the coal industry lobbyists and make sure that the EPA can do its job to protect public health.