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Alarming Rates of Asthma Exacerbated by Coal Plant Pollution Minneapolis schoolchildren have twice the national rate of asthma.(1) The disease is the number one reason for absenteeism in the school district, and it will afflict an estimated 54,000 Minneapolis children and their families by the end of the decade.(2) Cleaning up power plant pollution is critical to addressing this crisis, but rather than helping to alleviate the asthma epidemic, the Bush administration's "clean air" policies threaten to exacerbate it. Pollution from power plants has the greatest impact on the elderly and the very young. One of the associated tragedies is a pronounced increase in the rate of childhood asthma. This disease can be extraordinarily challenging for young people, preventing them from engaging in normal activities, and a recent study concluded that active children are at greater risk to develop asthma from pollution sources.(3) Minneapolis is home to the Riverside coal-fired power plant, which has been in existence since 1911.(4) It currently produces about 400 MW of power driven by three boilers, the oldest of which began operating in 1948. When people talk about "grandfathered" plants, they are referring to operations like Riverside. Fran Guminga works with the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition, a 10-year old coalition working to protect and preserve the Upper Mississippi River Corridor. Guminga contends that if the Riverside coal-burning plant-which sits in the heart of densely populated Minneapolis-converted from coal to gas, it would reduce emissions in the region equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road. "It would also take 98 pounds of toxic mercury and other heavy metals like lead out of the air we breathe," she says.(5) Natural gas burns much cleaner than coal, and converting to natural gas nearly eliminates mercury pollution and reduces smog and soot pollution by about 90 percent.(6) There is hope that the plant may indeed make this conversion, but it is on the distant horizon. Xcel, the utility that owns the Riverside plant, has proposed converting it to natural gas by 2009.(7) Taking advantage of recent legislation passed by the Minnesota legislature, Xcel has petitioned for a rate increase to pay for converting both Riverside and the High Bridge power plant, located in St. Paul, to natural gas. Xcel is also proposing installation of modern pollution control technologies at the Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights.(8) Ratepayers would pick up the estimated $1 billion price tag. Some community activists are concerned with the long timeline. "I'll be dead by then," says Randy Kouri, who lives five blocks from Riverside and has been fighting to clean up the plant for the last 20 years.(9) Others point out that there has not been a particularly strong history of companies completing such conversions voluntarily. Ominously, the Minnesota Senate has discussed changing the law that provides incentives for companies like Xcel to make these kinds of investments.(10) Major industrial energy consumers are opposing the cleanup on the grounds that it will cost too much, and it remains uncertain whether the proposed conversions to natural gas and pollution reduction will be approved. If the voluntary reductions do not go forward, Minneapolis residents will continue to face excessive levels of pollution from old coal-burning power plants. Dramatic reductions in soot and smog pollution are possible with "off the shelf" technology.(11) Xcel's own proposal indicates that emissions reductions in soot and smog pollution of nearly 90 percent are possible in at least one of its existing coal plants.(12) The Bush administration is seeking to weaken that part of the Clean Air Act requiring modern pollution control technologies. In a June announcement, the administration proposed changes that would create new loopholes to applying New Source Review.(13) A cleanup seven years in the future does little to help the 54,000 children in Minneapolis-St. Paul who will suffer from childhood asthma in the intervening years. As Xcel formulates plans for meeting additional demand in the Minneapolis-St.Paul region, a strong Clean Air Act will help ensure that they are protecting public health. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
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