N.Y. sues midwest coal-fired plants for acid rain
Date: 17-Sep-99
Country: USA
"Air pollution does not respect state boundaries," Spitzer said in a
news conference in Albany, N.Y.
Spitzer alleged the 17 plants were in violation of the federal Clean Air
Act as amended in 1990, which "requires that when power plants make
major structural changes, those power plants must comply with the same
environmental standards as new power plants."
The power plants named in the suit have undergone structural
enhancements, which not only augmented their power output, but also
added to their emissions, according to the Attorney General's
Environmental Protection Bureau.
The owners of the power plants named in the lawsuit include units of
Dominion Resources Inc. , American Electric Power Co. Inc. , Cinergy
Corp. , FirstEnergy and NiSource Inc. .
Officials at Dominion's Virginia Power unit said the company had not
received notice of the lawsuit and could not comment.
Officials at AEP's Ohio Power Co., Appalachian Power Co., Kentucky Power
Co. and Indiana Michigan Power Co. units, Cinergy, FirstEnergy's Ohio
Edison Co. unit, and NiSource's Northern Indiana Public Service Co.
(NIPSCO) unit were not immediately available for comment.
Spitzer said he would file the lawsuit in federal court seeking damages
in the "many millions of dollars, numbers that are so vast that the
utility companies will understand that it would challenge their fiscal
stability."
Spitzer also said he wanted the court to impose an injunction to force
the plant owners to reduce the plants nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur
dioxide (SO2) emissions.
Spitzer did say he would be willing to negotiate a settlement with the
companies, but he wanted the companies to know he was "deadly serious
about bringing these cases."
Following Spitzer's announcement, several environmental groups,
including New York's 18,000-member Adirondack Council and the National
Audubon Society, and New York politicians praised Spritzer's stand.
"The Attorney General is correct...On the first day of the 106th
Congress I will introduce a bill with Senator Moynihan that would
require deeper reductions in the pollutants emitted by Midwestern power
plants," Congressman Sherwood Boehlert of New York said in a statement.
The plants named in the suit include Ohio Power's Cardinal/Tidd,
Muskingum River, Gavin, Sporn, Kammer and Mitchell, Cinergy's Beckjord,
Ohio Edison's Sammis, NIPSCO's Schafer, Indiana Michigan's Tanner Creek,
Appalachian Power's Clinch River, Amos and Kanawha River, Virginia
Power's Chesterfield and Mt. Storm, Monongahela Power's Fort Martin, and
Kentucky Power's Big Sandy.
