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Midwest Regional Conservation Committee Coal Fired Power Generation CLEAN AIR NEWS March 1, 2002 Sierra Club Greets Bush with Report Showing Major Threat to Iowans from Coal Plant Pollution--  Bush Administration's Energy Policy Could Increase Cancer-Causing Pollution DES MOINES -- The Sierra Club greeted President Bush at an Iowa fundraiser by releasing a new report showing coal power plants to be the major source of cancer-causing pollution in Iowa and the Midwest. A crowd of Sierra Club members and concerned citizens handed out the report, entitled “Polluted Power in the Midwest," to draw attention to the Bush Administration's proposal to build more than 1,300 polluting power plants and weaken environmental protections like the Clean Air Act. "Next to tobacco, the next major preventable cause of cancer is air pollution," said Dr. Charles  Winterwood M.D., pediatrician and Chair of the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club. "We want the visiting President to know that his energy policy is dirty and dangerous. Building renewable sources of energy rather than coal-fired powered power plants will save Iowans' lives." The "Polluted Power in the Midwest" study shows more than half (51%) of the cancer-causing pollution from large industries in the Midwest comes from coal-fired power plants. Iowa is disproportionately affected, with 89% of the state's cancer-causing pollution coming from coal-fired power plants while Wisconsin's coal plants are responsible for only 9%. "Polluted Power" also contends that power plants are the largest source of arsenic air pollution in the Midwest, with 99.9% of Iowa's arsenic pollution coming from power plants. "We need to re-think the way we generate power," said Jane Clark, Sierra Club Iowa Conservation Chair. "The science is clear, we need to clean up dirty, old coal plants. EPA says there is technology to remove up to 99% of arsenic air pollution from coal plants. We have the technology, we can have cleaner air and cleaner energy." In 2001, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney proposed building 1,300 new power plants, and this year advocated weakening the 1990 Clean Air Act standards, laws which require new or expanding plants to put in updated pollution control technology to reduce health risks. Recent studies link coal plants to 30,000 premature deaths and increased cancer cases, but this is the first study showing the major role coal power plants have in cancer-causing pollution. The data is from the 1999 self-reported Toxics Release Inventory that industries give to EPA, and was analyzed by www.scorecard.org and the Sierra Club. "The bad news is lots of pollution comes from dirty, old coal plants," said Eric Uram, Sierra Club Regional Representative.  "The good news is we know how to clean them up." The group called on the Bush Administration to clean up dirty coal plants, promote greater energy efficiency, and promote cleaner, more renewable sources of energy like wind, solar, and biomass. This can be done by putting in a 20% renewable portfolio standard and increasing miles per gallon average per car to over 35 mpg. Up to Top