Power Company Settles Pollution Lawsuit

  • Many power plants like this one emit a large volume of polluting gases. Unlike those power plants, Ohio Edison decided to settle the lawsuit filed against the Sammis Plant by installing equipment to reduce pollution. (Photo by Lynne Lancaster)

More than five years ago, several eastern states filed suit against Midwest power companies. They claimed the power companies were violating the Clean Air Act, and their residents were suffering from air pollution that drifts eastward. Now, one of the power companies named in the lawsuit has settled. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jo Ingles reports, environmentalists think this agreement might prompt other utilities to follow suit:

Transcript

More than five years ago several eastern states filed suit against Midwest power companies. They claimed the power companies were violating the clean air act, and their residents were suffering from air pollution that drifts eastward. Now, one of the power companies named in the lawsuit has settled. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jo Ingles reports, environmentalists think this agreement might prompt other utilities to follow suit:


Ohio Edison has agreed to pay more than a billion dollars over the next seven years to install pollution control equipment that will reduce the amount of pollution emitted into the air from the Sammis Plant near Steubenville, Ohio.


In addition, the company will spend ten million dollars over the next five years for alternative energy projects in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Plus Thomas Sansonetti with the U.S. Justice department says the company will pay a huge fine.


“In fact, it’s the second largest civil penalty ever obtained in this field….it’s 8.5 million dollars.”


Environmentalists are cheering the settlement, saying it will prompt other power companies that have polluted in the past to pay up.


First Energy, the parent company of Ohio Edison, says it’s happy to settle this lawsuit because it can now plan for its future.


For the GLRC, I’m Jo Ingles in Columbus Ohio.

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