Earlier this month, Randy Zook of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce published a guest column here arguing against new clean-air protections.
As hard as it may be to imagine, it’s true. An Arkansas business group, living right here in The Natural State, publicly opposed protections that would ensure better air quality, fewer asthma and heart attacks, and a dramatic decrease in premature deaths for Arkansans.
While arguing against clean air and in favor of dirty, coal-fired power plants, Zook offers a dark dilemma: Should we choose a healthy economy or a healthy environment?
In truth, that is a false choice. We can have both a healthy economy and a healthy environment for our people, if we make smart choices about Arkansas’ energy future.
All across the nation, states and utilities are moving away from dirty coal-burning power plants and toward cleaner, renewable sources of energy. Since 2002, plans for 175 proposed coal-fired power plants have been scrapped or defeated. Just since January of 2010, 145 existing coal-fired power plants have announced plans to retire-more than 50,000 megawatts of dirty power. This has happened across the country, including our neighbors in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
The reasons are many, but the two biggest reasons are that coal is ceasing to make economic sense, and cleaner sources of energy are becoming more and more affordable.
For far too long in our nation’s history, the coal industry has operated under a different set of rules than the rest of us. Whether we’re talking about special loopholes from the Clean Water Act for coal mining, or exemptions from the Clean Air Act for coal-burning, or lack of regulation for toxic coal-ash waste, the coal industry has polluted our environment and our bodies without having to bear the costs of doing so.
While our power bills may have been lower, who pays the costs for damaging our air, water, lands, lungs and health? Not the coal industry and utilities-we pay those costs. These are costs we bear independent of our monthly electric bill.
Thankfully, the Environmental Protection Agency has been working to enact new clean-air protections for our country. These new protections will force polluters to clean up their dirty power plants-in other words, they will have to pay the true costs of doing business, rather than simply spew out poisons and expect the rest of us to pick up the tab and suffer the consequences.
In our view, this is a simple concept of fairness that we all should have learned as children. If you make a mess, you should clean it up.
Zook’s column made reference to an aging Arkansas coal-burning power plant (Flint Creek) and seemed to argue that it should not have to comply with new EPA regulations. Erroneously, he stated that “[t]he Arkansas Public Service Commission and the state attorney general recently gave permission for Flint Creek to implement a multimillion-dollar retrofit that would comply with existing EPA air-quality standards.” That statement is patently false.
Flint Creek’s owner (SWEPCO)has asked the Public Service Commission for permission to charge Arkansas ratepayers $500 million to add equipment that would keep this old and dirty coal-fired power plant in operation. Sierra Club and others have presented numerous alternatives that are both cleaner and less expensive than the $500 million solution, and the commission’s decision is still pending. Zook’s assertion that the decision has already been made is simply not true.
The commission has a choice to make: Either bill Arkansas ratepayers $500 million to prop up an aging and polluting coal plant, or opt for a plan that costs less and is much cleaner. I am hopeful that the commission will recognize that there are better options for ratepayers than extending the life of a dirty coal plant.
The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to notice the national trend away from coal power, but it is a reality. Ten years ago, well over 50 percent of our nation’s electricity came from coal. In 2012, that number was 37 percent and falling, its lowest level in decades.
At the same time, the solar and wind industries are booming and creating good, high-paying jobs-including hundreds of jobs right here in Arkansas.
As an Arkansan, I want my state’s electricity to come from clean, renewable sources. I’m in favor of common-sense clean-air protections, and I am convinced that coal-fired power is on its way out.
The Chamber should know one thing: Clean air and a healthy work force aren’t just good for Sierra Club. They’re good for business.
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Bob Allen is chairman of the Arkansas Sierra Club.
Editorial, Pages 17 on 05/31/2013