Editorial: Clearing the air

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

One of the nation's largest operators of coal-fired generating plants will drastically reduce air-polluting emissions and pay millions in fines and cleanup costs as part of a Clean Air Act settlement.

According to a story by The Washington Post on Tuesday, American Electric Power will spend $4.6 billion to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, gases that cause acid rain. The company also will pay $15 million in penalties and spend an additional $60 million to clean up damage to parks and waterways throughout the East, including Chesapeake Bay.

The settlement is the result of a 1999 lawsuit in which nine states and 13 environmental groups joined the Environmental Protection Agency in alleging that American Electric Power failed to install pollution-reducing controls when it modified and updated 30 of its 46 coal-fired facilities. The lawsuit was to go to trial in federal court Tuesday, the day the power company announced the settlement.

In fighting the suit, American Electric Power officials have maintained - and still do - that the work done at their plants was nothing more than "prudent maintenance" and did not qualify under a Clean Air Act provision that requires installing new pollution controls whenever significant work on plants is performed.

Electric utility industry officials have fought enforcement of the provision, and it is worth noting that the White House isn't known as a friend of the environment. But the U.S. Supreme Court deflated attempts to circumvent the important provision in April by ruling that Duke Energy Corp. had erroneously been allowed to significantly modify its power plants without updating pollution controls.

American Electric Power officials told the Post that the Supreme Court's ruling had no bearing on their decision to settle and that the company would have installed new pollution controls anyway.

Without tough enforcement, however, such promises are hollow. And no matter what improvements they make in the future, these companies must also be forced to mitigate any environmental catastrophes their pollution has caused.