Tag Archives: clean air act
Industry Wields Sway Over Air Pollution Rules, Enforcement
Sunflower Electric’s Kansas permit success (to date) is a telling snapshot of how, when industry flexes its muscles over Clean Air Act issues, it often wins. From Kansas to Louisiana to Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio, community groups have fought new plants, expansions and chronic emissions – only to see industry score victories with regulators and politicians. Continue reading
Commonsense Environmental Rules Protect Kansas Families
Utilities serving more than 2 million Kansans have sued to block the EPA’s Cross-State rule. The power companies have threatened brownouts, rolling blackouts and targeted service interruptions to big industries. Kansans should know that in the EPA’s 40-year history, there have been no instances in which the Clean Air Act has contributed to electric grid reliability problems, and should any arise, the Clean Air Act gives us the tools to address them on a case-by-case basis. Continue reading
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s Remarks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Since the beginning of this year, Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has orchestrated 170 votes against environmental protection. That is almost a vote for every day the chamber has been in session to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency and our nation’s environmental laws. Much of this has happened in response to myths and misleading information. Continue reading
Is the EPA Really a ‘Jobs Killer’?
Industry-paid studies often include questionable assumptions and economic models not validated by broad peer review. Jobs could also be created, not just destroyed, by regulation. The EPA’s rules are required to undergo a transparent cost-benefit analysis that is peer reviewed by others. The idea that environmental regulations would wipe out an industry or have a serious impact is implausible. Early estimates of cleanup costs are invariably wildly overstated. Continue reading
EPA Says KDHE Not Honest About Permit Objections
An Environmental Protection Agency official has accused lawyers representing a Kansas agency of lying to the state Supreme Court about support for a permit that would allow a $2.8 billion coal-fired power plant to be built in southwest Kansas. Continue reading
We Can Clean the Air, Create Jobs and Power the Economy at the Same Time
As one of the largest electricity generators in the U.S., we believe that EPA’s air pollutant regulations should be viewed as an opportunity to modernize the nation’s electric power infrastructure. Frankly, action is long overdue. Any significant delay for these rules will only perpetuate uncertainty where clarity is needed. Continue reading
Kansas Energy and the Bremby Decision: Four Years Later
Efforts continue to obscure the facts, derail the rule of law, and deny the public interest in order to benefit the coal plant project and its special interest allies, but Mr. Bremby’s decision four years ago remains as visionary and important an act of public service now as it was in October of 2007. Continue reading
Pollution is Not the Secret to Job Creation
Peer-reviewed articles published over the last few decades have probed the relationship between environmental regulations, employment, and economic growth. Serious economic analysis says that we need more protection, not less. Exploiting the public’s deep need for job creation to promote an anti-regulatory agenda is dishonest and dangerous. Continue reading
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Testimony Before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful environmental laws in American history. It is misleading to say that enforcement of our nation’s environmental laws is bad for the economy and employment. It isn’t. Continue reading
Why Anti-Science Ideology is Bad for America
Sadly and with few brave exceptions, some politicians are active and aggressive at using false, misleading, or discredited science, or explicitly ignoring good science, in setting public policy to support ideology. History tells us this never leads to a good outcome. Continue reading
