Adirondack Council Applauds Supreme Court Decision Reviving Rule that Bans States from Causing Air Pollution for Neighbors
ADIRONDACK COUNCIL APPLAUDS SUPREME COURT DECISION REVIVING
RULE THAT BANS STATES FROM CAUSING AIR POLLUTION FOR NEIGHBORS
Measure Will Help Adirondack Park Recover from Decades of Acid Rain, Smog
John Sheehan
518-441-1340 cell
518-432-1770 ofc
For immediate release: Tuesday, April 29, 2014
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. – One of the nation’s leading advocates in the fight against acid rain applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today to revive a federal rule that makes it illegal for upwind states to cause air pollution that harms neighboring states.
“The Cross-State Pollution Rule should never have been struck down in 2011 and we are thrilled that the Supreme Court has revived it,” said William C. Janeway, Executive Director of the Adirondack Council, an environmental organization located in the largest park in the contiguous United States. “The Adirondack Park has suffered for decades from pollution drifting in from Midwest states. Nearly all of our acid rain is created by smokestacks hundreds of miles away.”
Acid rain changes water and soil chemistry, killing fish and forests, while also contaminating the food chain with mercury. Acid rain destroys buildings, monuments, cemeteries and outdoor sculptures. The pollution that causes acid rain – sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides – also causes smog and creates fine particles that harm lungs and other organs.
“This rule gives the lakes and forests of the Adirondack Park a real chance to recover,” Janeway said. “No longer can power companies in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania pollute the Adirondacks and get away with it. This rule requires them to make cuts in their pollution until it stops harming the states next to them. That is precisely what we needed.
“The Adirondack Council and others have spent decades proving that acid rain was real, and proving where it came from,” Janeway said. “The worst of our problems began in the 1970s, when federal officials ordered coal-fired power plants to clean up air quality in their home states. Midwest plants built very tall smokestacks that allowed winds to carry most of the pollution away; but ‘away’ turned out to be right here in the Adirondack Park.
“We are situated just downwind of the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes, where the largest number of coal-fired power plants are located,” Janeway said. “So air pollution and moisture reach here first, and fall in the form of rain, snow, sleet and fog.”
By 1990, federal research showed that more than 700 Adirondack lakes and ponds (about 25 percent) had become too acidic to support their native life. Many high-elevation spruce and fir forests had been destroyed. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 helped to reduce that number, but there is still too much pollution falling to halt the damage entirely.
“Since 1990, power companies in the Midwest have lobbied against federal legislation to protect the Adirondacks and the rest of the Northeast. We have been getting nowhere in Congress,” Janeway explained. “We thank the Supreme Court for reinstating this rule and acting to save the Adirondack Park.”
Janeway noted that New York had been the first state in the nation to adopt acid rain legislation in 1984, cleaning up its power plant emissions in an effort to save the Adirondack Park from destruction. When this proved insufficient, the Council and other environmental organizations pressed for federal action.
The result was the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which cut sulfur-based air pollution by about 50 percent. That program caused significant improvements in the Adirondacks, but didn’t stop the problem entirely.
After several major scientific studies showed additional pollution cuts were needed to finish the job – and to protect people from lung diseases – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which was thrown out by the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. EPA then proposed the Cross-State Pollution Rule. It too was negated by the DC court in August 2012.
In June 2013, the Adirondack Council and Adirondack Mountain Club urged the Obama administration to appeal that decision. The administration filed its appeal shortly thereafter.
The Supreme Court reinstated the rule today in a 6-2-1 ruling, led by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Justice Samuel Alito recused himself.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is privately funded, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character of New York’s six-million-acre Adirondack Park. The Council envisions an Adirondack Park comprised of core wilderness areas, surrounded by working forests and farms, and vibrant rural communities.
The Adirondack Council carries out its mission and vision through research, education, advocacy and legal action. Adirondack Council members live in all 50 United States.
