homepage - programs - environmental law - lawsuits - sierra club prevents coal plant from emitting harmful air pollution in ohio
Sierra Club Prevents Coal Plant from Emitting Harmful Air Pollution in Ohio
Case Updates:
January 17, 2011
Sierra Club has reached a monumental agreement with a coal plant company that will protect communities and wild lands from harmful air pollution in Ohio. Dayton Power & Light (DPL), a co-owner of the coal-fired Stuart Generating Station in Dayton, Ohio, has surrendered 1,925 government-issued air pollution allowances to Adirondack Council as part of a 2008 settlement with Sierra Club. The settlement stems from a several-year lawsuit against DPL’s Stuart Generating Station, in which the coal-fired facility was cited for repeated Clean Air Act violations. By handing over the pollution allowances, DPL has given up the right to emit 1,925 tons of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide (SO2) air pollution into the atmosphere.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as part of its Acid Rain control program, developed the allowance trading system to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution from power plants. Through the program, each power plant owner receives one pollution allowance for each ton of sulfur dioxide it is allowed to emit. Those who reduce their emissions faster than the law requires can sell leftover allowances to those unable to meet their goals, or those who want to open a new plant. Polluters whose emissions exceed their allowances are required to pay stiff fines.
Under the agreement, Adirondack Council - a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the Adirondack Park’s ecological health and wild character - will hold DPL’s pollution allowances in trust forever. As Marilyn Wall, Chair of Miami Group, for Sierra Club’s Ohio Chapter, said, “…[w]e are happy that the Adirondack Council helped us with a mechanism that would make sure the allowances were permanently retired. The Council has a strong history of fighting against acid rain, for more than thirty years, and its allowance retirement program has already prevented thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide from ever leaving a smokestack.”
Details and Documents:
Adirondack Council Takes Possession of 1,925 Sulfur Dioxide Pollution Allowances
January 17, 2011, Adirondack Council Press Release
More Info:
See other "Retiring Old Coal" cases.