Several aldermen are backing an ordinance that would clamp down on particulate matter and carbon dioxide emissions produced by the city’s two largest coal-fired power plants.

Pilsen’s Fisk Generating Station, 1111 W. Cermak, and the Crawford Generating Station, 3501 S. Pulaski, in Little Village, have long been targeted by environmental campaigners.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said existing federal and state pollution control laws haven’t adequately protected public health and the city’s environment from coal-based pollution, nor have they spurred Midwest Generation, which owns the plants, to install the best-possible technology to clean up its operations.

“None of those regulations address the kind of emissions that doctors and scientists say pose the most serious threat to the health of Chicago’s residents,” he said Tuesday at a press conference.

A 2001 study published by the Harvard School of Public Health estimated that the particulate matter produced by Fisk and Crawford stations together cause 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits and thousands of asthma attacks annually.

Supporters of the ordinance also pointed to the lack of a federal or state regulatory framework on carbon dioxide, the pollutant responsible for global climate change, as another reason why the city must act.

The proposed bill would establish tighter restrictions on two different sizes of particulate matter — tiny solids or liquids that can damage respiratory systems — requiring compliance with new standards within a year of its passage.

Carbon dioxide emissions would get a slightly longer leash, with compliance with tougher rules mandated within three years after the bill went into effect.

Midwest Generation said in a press statement that federal and state standards were adequate, and that the firm had cut pollutants at Fisk and Crawford since acquiring the plants more than 10 years ago.

“Given the existing state and federal regulations protecting public health and the environment, an additional layer of regulation in Chicago is unnecessary and overreaching,” the statement read.

The statement threatened plant closure if the bill was passed: “Its only real impact will be to risk the shutdown of these plants, and as a result, reliability of the electric grid and the loss of hundreds of good union jobs.”

Moore said he didn’t know Mayor Richard Daley’s take on the ordinance and acknowledged a previous attempt to regulate Fisk and Crawford “didn’t go anywhere.”

A spokesperson for the mayor said she hadn’t seen the ordinance and referred calls to the Department of Environment. A spokesman there didn’t return a call by Chicago Journal’s deadline.

Alds. Waguespack, Schulter, Jackson and Preckwinkle have signed on as co-sponsors of the emissions ordinance.

Moore said shifting public consciousness about pollution and climate change has him hopeful the new ordinance will pass.

While the city council takes up the bill, a federal court action against Midwest Generation is ongoing.

Faith Bugel, senior attorney for the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, said the U.S. EPA has filed a lawsuit against all of Midwest Generation’s coal-fired plants, a suit joined by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

But it will be two years before the case is heard, she said.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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By noramarie from Printers Row
Posted: 04/17/2010 4:17 PM

I'm so proud to see the aldermen taking the kind of action on energy policy that our state and national leaders should have begun so long ago. Fuels like coal cost us millions in health bills and environmental cleanup, even if they seem cheap on our utility bills. Chicago should set an example for the rest of the country by cutting fossil fuels and investing in clean energy sources sooner rather than later; maybe Burris & Durbin will take the hint and start working on the clean energy bill too.