In December of 2000, several states (including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio) failed to submit new air pollution rules to the U.S. EPA. To avoid penalties, the EPA gave the states more time to submit the new rules. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston reports on one state that just beat the new deadline:
Transcript
In December of 2000, several states (including Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, and Ohio) failed to submit new air pollution rules to the U.S.
EPA. To avoid penalties, the EPA gave the states
more time to submit
the new rules. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston reports
on one state that just beat the new deadline:
The U.S. EPA is requiring the states to reduce nitrogen oxide, or NOx
emissions from power plants by 70 percent. The agency says Ohio releases more NOx emissions than any other state.
The country’s largest coal burning power plant is in southeast Ohio. It’s owned by American Electric Power. Company spokesman Tom Ayres says most power plants began working to curb emissions in 1997 after a change in the federal clean air act.
“AEP is involved in an expenditure program totaling approximately 1.6 billion dollars to install technology called selective catalytic reduction, or SCR, to capture emissions of NOx.”
AEP ran into trouble with this new technology at its Cheshire, Ohio plant.
A chemical reaction created an excess of sulfuric acid … which turned the
air blue. Many power plants plan to install or have installed similar systems.
But so far, power companies say they’ve avoided similar problems.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Natalie Walston.