Power plant pollution causes 24,000 premature deaths annually, study claims

The study, commissioned by Clear the Air and based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says the early deaths caused by plant pollution cuts includes 2,800 from lung cancer. It also says the pollution causes 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks annually.

The report, “Dirty Air, Dirty Power”, says people whose lives are shortened by power plant pollution lose an average of 14 years off their lifespan.

According to Clear the Air, the report’s findings are based on independent data analysis by Abt Associates, using standard EPA methodology.

“The results are staggering,” said Angela Ledford, director of Clear the Air. “The Bush administration knows how to solve this problem. But instead of simply enforcing the law, they are allowing the polluters to rewrite the rules, weaken current law and pass it off as progress.”

The report compares premature deaths that would result under the Bush administration’s air pollution plan, the existing Clean Air Act and a proposal sponsored by Senator Jim Jeffords to strengthen the Clean Air Act.

The study’s authors say the Bush proposal, known as Clear Skies, would result in 4,000 preventable premature deaths each year compared to enforcing current law. The report claims the Jeffords bill would save 22,000 lives annually.

Administration and power industry officials have dismissed the Clear the Air report, calling it politically motivated and skewed.

“There’s a lot more political science in this report than environmental science,” said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Co-ordinating Council, which represents power companies. “It’s full of crude methodological assumptions.”

Supporters of the Bush plan said their critics are ignoring dramatic pollution cuts the Bush plan would achieve over the next six years. According to the EPA, by 2010 reductions in fine particle ozone levels would prevent 7,800 premature deaths and yield $55 billion a year in health and visibility benefits nationwide.

The Bush plan is also designed to reduce power plant emissions by 70 per cent by 2018. An official at the Environment and Public Works Committee told the Washington Post the Bush plan is “the most aggressive pollution initiative ever by an American president.”

With both sides showing no sign of compromise, it remains unclear whether either of the proposed plans will make it into law during the current election year.