Largest Settlement in U.S. Clean Air Enforcement Lawsuit

Long distance power in the midwest. American Electric Power, or AEP, whose power plants form the backbone of the power grid in the American Midwest, agreed to the largest pollution enforcement settlement in U.S. history.

A spokesman for AEP disputed the settlement figure, reported by the EPA as $4.6 billion. AEP also denies that improvements currently planned to reduce plant emissions have anything to do with a court settlement and are only an effort to comply with federal law. The EPA says that AEP prolonged the life of many of its plants without installing the required pollution control equipment, and that no such improvements were planned until the suit was originally filed in 1999.

Pollution from AEP plants in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia is carried by prevailing winds over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, casts a hazy smog over Smoky Mountain National Park, and contribute to rising acid rain in the Adirondacks.

Whichever spin you favor, the EPA or AEP (just a little ironic, isn’t it?), it seems a good thing that the problem is being addressed. It is good to know that there is a consequence for not following environmental laws.

I remember visiting Smoky Mountain National Park in the early sixties. Yes, I’m that old, but not that old, for I was a wee lad then. I remember campsites, sleeping in tents, and my dad scaring away a bear. What I don’t remember is smog.

Sources and Further Reading:
PlanetArk.com
Grist.org