Over the next few days, the Obama administration will decide whether to address a major public health challenge facing the country: the large amount of mercury that continually pours out of coal-fired power plants, contaminating our air and drinking water.

Every year, mercury from coal-fired power plants is responsible for thousands of premature deaths, heart attacks, and serious respiratory illnesses. In addition, mercury is one of the leading causes of preventable birth defects.

Today, because of mercury, a baby may be born with brain damage or cerebral palsy. An infant may begin developing asthma, which will mean missed school days, visits to the hospital, less physical exercise, and potentially a greater risk of diabetes. And a parent or grandparent may go to the hospital with a heart attack or severe bronchitis.

We can stop this. We can spare children this tragic injustice and the pain it brings their families. We can spare adults from losing years off their lives. And we can spare taxpayers the enormous health care costs that come with mercury-related-illnesses.

Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 70 percent of our nation’s mercury emissions. After being released into the air we breathe, mercury — a heavy metal — also falls into our soil and water, where it can contaminate the food we eat, especially fish.

The EPA has proposed rules that would reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 90%, preventing 12,200 emergency room visits and saving $80 billion a year in health care costs. The rules — now sitting on the president’s desk — are two decades overdue.

In 1990, when the Clean Air Act was last revised, Congress directed the EPA to establish limits on mercury and other emissions of coal-fired power plants. In March, after 20 years of delay, the EPA has finally issued a set of draft rules. By Monday, the president will decide whether to adopt the draft rules, weaken them, or withdraw them entirely. It will be one of the defining tests of the administration’s commitment to public health and environmental protection.

The big power companies have had years to improve mercury emissions controls, and a majority of coal-fired plants (54%) have already done so. The remaining coal-fired plants are generally old and inefficient, and should have been retired years ago. The owners of these plants have been promoting the idea that the EPA’s rules will destroy the American economy and cause rolling blackouts. They won’t. It’s just a scare tactic. In fact, some of the leading voices in our nation’s utility industry — the businesses that run our power lines — do not object to the EPA’s proposed rules.

The utility industry knows that if plant owners decide it is not cost-effective to adopt mercury emission controls, those plants can be converted to cleaner-burning natural gas. That would create even more jobs and reduce costs for consumers, because natural gas plants are more efficient than coal plants. Many old plants have already undergone this transformation, and the American economy — not to mention our public health — is stronger for it.

Owners of mercury-emitting coal-fired plants also argue they need more time, as well as long-term exemptions for some plants. There will always be excuses for delay. But two decades is long enough for the American people to wait for mercury to be removed from the air we breathe.

Coal-fired power plants and the pollution they produce — including mercury — are the number one threat to our public health and the environment. That is why my foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, recently provided a $50 million grant to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, with the goal of retiring one-third of the nation’s coal fleet by 2020. But the federal government must not wait another decade — or another week — to begin phasing out a pollutant that has harmed so many people’s health.

This is not an issue of jobs versus the environment. It’s an issue of the American people’s public health versus a narrow special interest. And it is now up to the President to declare the winner.

(Source: The Huffington Post)

On Tuesday, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (NUPUC) in Minnesota voted “no” to a project that would have converted its steam plant to coal. New Ulm Citizens for Clean Energy has been working with the Sierra Club and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) to stop the project from moving forward since NUPUC applied for a permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in 2009.

Said Mike Bloomberg:

“This is great news for the people of Minnesota, and another important victory for the Beyond Coal Campaign. We are clearly witnessing the end of our dependency on coal and the move toward a cleaner energy future. As important we are helping to provide cleaner water and cleaner air to communities and our citizens across the nation.”

You can read more about the history of the New Ulm situation here and about the recent development here.

On Thursday September 15, Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric announced they would retire three coal plants in Kentucky.

The three plants are the Green River Plant inCentral City, the Tyrone Plant in Versailles, and the Cane Run Plant in Louisville. Stats about the negative impact of the Can Run Plant are detailed in the 2011 Clean Air Task Force study.

Recently the Sierra Club joined forces with Bloomberg Philanthropies to combat the dangerous health effects coal fired power has on children and families across the nation. Since that announcement, six plants have announced their intension to close.

To read more about this closing please read the Sierra Club’s press release on the announcement. For more information on how you can join the Beyond Coal Campaign please visit www.beyondcoal.org.

Just a few days after the GenOn coal burning plant in Alexandria, VA announced their plan to close in October 2012, two other coal burning plants in Virginia are taking a similar path. It was announced that the Chesapeake and Yorktown coal burning plants would close by 2016 and 2015 respectively. The Sierra Club commented on the news last night.

Mike Bloomberg had this to say:

“We are witnessing the beginning of the end of our nation’s reliance on coal. The announcement of two additional coal plant closings in Virginia, on the heels of the Alexandria plant closing, is a clear indication that the Beyond Coal Campaign is working. Congratulations to the communities and local leaders who are taking action and making this happen. Their efforts will improve public health, clean up the environment and save lives.”

For local Virginia coverage on the announcement, click here.

Join the fight for healthier air and cleaner environment. Take the BeyondCoal pledge!

The GenOn Energy coal-powered plant in Alexandria, VA, the dirtiest in the greater Washington, DC area, is now slated to close in 2012. Last month, the plant served as the backdrop for Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of Bloomberg Philanthropies $50 million donation to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. The New York Times reports:

The campaign to convert such sites to other uses got help from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on July 21. From a boat on the Potomac, with the GenOn generation station in the background, Mr. Bloomberg announced a $50 million grant from his charitable foundation to support Sierra Club efforts to close the country’s coal-fired power plants.

The City of Alexandria and local residents have fought for years to close the plant, which has been cited for violations of state and federal air pollution laws and operates at only 20 percent of capacity, firing up mainly at times of peak demand.

Today, the Sierra Club announced a partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies that will effectively retire one-third of the nation’s aging coal fleet by 2020, replacing it with clean energy. The partnership includes a $50 million commitment over four years to the Beyond Coal Campaign that will fuel the Sierra Club’s effort to clean the air, end the coal era, and accelerate the transition to cleaner, cost-effective energy sources. 

• The New York Times reported on the campaign’s goals, including cutting “electricity production from coal by 30 percent by 2020 and to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent.”
• Environmental news website Grist offered its take on the issue, highlighting the Sierra Club’s anti-coal campaign as “one of the few national environmental initiatives to have substantial success in the last five years, blocking 153 coal plants and counting.”
• The Washington Post reports on how the partnership reflects a new approach to effecting environmental change.
• Rolling Stone, meanwhile, has the story on how the funds will help the campaign.
• And NPR’s Morning Edition also did a story on the donation, calling Mayor Bloomberg’s support “a big boost.”