Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org
Columbia, S.C. - Today, the Sierra Club unveiled a new interactive tool that shows the environmental toll of the Trump Administration’s planned rollbacks of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safeguards on coal pollution in South Carolina.
The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard provides data on how much pollution would be reduced if five EPA rules were implemented: the Good Neighbor Plan, Regional Haze standards, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, Effluent Limitation Guidelines, and Greenhouse Gas Standards. These safeguards are in place to curb emissions of nitrogen oxides, mercury, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, wastewater pollution, and other toxic chemicals from burning coal. The interactive tool details each rule on its issue-specific tab and where each coal plant is located on a map.
Five coal plants owned by two utilities in South Carolina could escape pollution reductions, according to the Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard. Those plants are listed followed by the applicable rule(s):
- Santee Cooper’s Cope coal plant; Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG)
- Santee Cooper’s Cross generating station, units 1-4; Regional Haze and Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d)
- Dominion Energy’s Wateree coal plant, units 1-2; Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG)
- Dominion Energy’s Williams generating station; Regional Haze and Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG)
- Santee Cooper’s Winyah coal plant, units 1-4; Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG)
The rules, if fully implemented in South Carolina, would have reduced carbon dioxide emissions annually from listed coal plants by 85 percent, or 14,725,627 tons. Additionally, nitrogen oxides would have been reduced by 64 percent, or 1,542 tons, and sulfur dioxide would have been reduced by 31 percent, or 1,042 tons. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions present serious public health concerns. Utilities can voluntarily choose to go above and beyond environmental laws.
Statement from Paul Black, Carolinas Senior Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer with the Sierra Club:
“Dominion and Santee Cooper are shameless monopoly utilities, using their influence to socialize the financial risk of building new power plants for customers while externalizing the cost of its existing coal plants into the lungs of hard-working South Carolinians. The only way utilities throughout the state will clean up their act is if we fight together for clean air, clean water, affordable energy, and a habitable planet.”
In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement:
“The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard demonstrates clearly that with every executive order, Donald Trump is recklessly releasing tons and tons of toxic, deadly chemicals into our air. These EPA safeguards were put in place to shield our communities from toxins that poison children, cause more asthma attacks, more heart attacks, and more premature deaths.
“The American people should be outraged that in the first few months of his presidency, Donald Trump has so callously attacked these lifesaving standards and given Big Coal a free pass to make Americans sicker with no consequence. The Sierra Club will continue to fight these dangerous rollbacks and defend our people from more deadly pollution.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.