Utility Pays $4.6 Billion Clean Air Tab

Electric companies loathe it, environmentalists love it: the new source review provision of the Clean Air Act. Implemented in 1977, the rule requires power companies to install state-of-the-art pollution control technology whenever they build new plants or upgrade existing ones. That was the idea, at least. About 10 years ago the Environmental Protection Agency came to the realization that almost no power plants had applied for the permits required by the rule in the 20 years since its passage. In response, the EPA filed lawsuits against several utility companies, and NRDC entered the fray as well, suing the largest of them, American Electric Power (AEP), for violation of the Clean Air Act. Families downwind of the plants in the Ohio River Valley submitted declarations in the case, telling heartbreaking tales of children living with asthma, family members suffering from heart disease, and the sulfurous smell that hung in the air inside their homes -- all of which was directly related to AEP's illegal emissions. Now, after two years of investigation and eight years of litigation, NRDC has reached the largest settlement in the history of the Clean Air Act: the utility giant agreed to spend $4.6 billion on up-to-date pollution controls. "Today's historic settlement not only holds AEP accountable, but also puts big polluters on notice that they can no longer run and hide from their actions or circumvent the Clean Air Act," said John Walke, director of NRDC's Clean Air Program.