Pennsylvania, Ohio & West Virginia pollute more than themselves:
Power companies have been turning off pollution control equipment at coal-fired plants and allowing massive amounts of contaminants to escape through the stacks — a practice that is perfectly legal and saves the plants money but ends up contributing to chronic air and health issues in New Jersey....
As a result, some plants logged dramatic increases in nitrogen oxide emissions between 2009 and 2013 — even though the facilities have equipment that could capture up to 90 percent of the pollutant. FirstEnergy’s Harrison plant in West Virginia, for instance, emitted nearly 18,700 tons of nitrogen oxide in 2013, a nearly threefold increase from 2009. The Keystone plant in Pennsylvania, co-owned by Exelon and New Jersey-based PSEG Power, released nearly 16,650 tons of the pollutant in 2013, up about 350 percent from 2009.
The nitrogen oxide gets swept by prevailing winds and travels hundreds of miles east to New Jersey...
“It makes me very disappointed that some plants in Pennsylvania are turning off their equipment at probably the worst time for ozone — during the summer,” said Bob Martin, commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection. “Some of these plant owners are New Jersey companies, and they’re affecting New Jersey air quality.”...
Many coal-burning power plants with the largest nitrogen oxide emissions nationwide are in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia...
Power plants can legally turn off pollution controls and still remain in compliance because federal regulations let them buy credits that allow them to pollute. The EPA rules employ a strategy called cap and trade, which lets companies that decrease pollution sell their unused credits to companies whose emissions are above a certain threshold....
In the early 2000s, PPL, which operates several large facilities in Pennsylvania, spent about $215 million to equip its Montour plant with pollution controls. The company was using its SCR equipment in 2009 to reduce emissions as part of a strategy to accumulate allowances it could sell or use later. But when the price of allowances went down dramatically, PPL “chose to rely more on the purchase of emission allowances as permitted by the federal trading program,” said George Lewis, a spokesman with PPL.
-- From “N.J. air quality takes a hit,” by James M. O’Neill, at this May 17, 2015 NorthJersey site:
Many coal-burning power plants with the largest nitrogen oxide emissions nationwide are in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia...
New Jersey’s DEP has estimated that on days when the prevailing wind blows from the west, Pennsylvania pollution sources can contribute up to 30 percent of the ozone recorded at air monitors in New Jersey — and that’s when power plants are operating their pollution control equipment. When plants turn off the equipment, the impact on New Jersey is far greater....
Power plants can legally turn off pollution controls and still remain in compliance because federal regulations let them buy credits that allow them to pollute. The EPA rules employ a strategy called cap and trade, which lets companies that decrease pollution sell their unused credits to companies whose emissions are above a certain threshold....
In the early 2000s, PPL, which operates several large facilities in Pennsylvania, spent about $215 million to equip its Montour plant with pollution controls. The company was using its SCR equipment in 2009 to reduce emissions as part of a strategy to accumulate allowances it could sell or use later. But when the price of allowances went down dramatically, PPL “chose to rely more on the purchase of emission allowances as permitted by the federal trading program,” said George Lewis, a spokesman with PPL.
Maryland:
85 percent of Marylanders breathe air that's never met the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ozone standards....
Our air pollution is so bad we top all kinds of lists. We tie D.C. and Cleveland for the highest rate of early deaths from air pollution. More Baltimoreans die from air pollution than from gun violence each year. Sadly, 20 percent of Baltimore's children have asthma, twice the national average. Polluted air also increases strokes and heart disease, adding to its health costs. Newly published Harvard research even links autism to air pollution....
The costs of air pollution are paid by city governments, businesses and citizens, not by the polluting power plants.
-- From “State 'smog regulations' ensure bad air quality,” by Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, Dana M. Stein, and Laurel Peltier at this May 17, 2015 Baltimore Sun site:
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