Sierra Club RAW: AEP + EPA = BS

Issue #231
October 19, 2007
AEP + EPA = BS
Josh Dorner

We had a real barnburner last week when American Electric Power (AEP) -- a massive utility as dirty as coal is black -- was forced to settle with the Sierra Club, several states, and the EPA over its failure to install legally-mandated pollution control equipment on its pollution-belching fleet of dirty coal plants. AEP has to come through with $4.6 billion in upgrades to its dinosaur-age (in more ways than one) coal plants and pay over $60 million in civil penalties and other fines.

After watching for years as the Bush administration tried to use its deceptively-named Clear Skies program and other failed initiatives to gut the very part of the Clean Air Act that AEP was hauled into court for violating, we were left as shocked as a student at a John Kerry event when the EPA continued aggressively pursuing AEP in the courts. But as mom always said, if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

Buried in the consent decree signed by AEP, the EPA assures the polluter that no matter what it does between now and December 13, 2018 -- yes, 2018 -- that the EPA will not pursue any enforcement action against it. We’ve been experiencing one long national environmental nightmare under this administration, and now it seems determined to keep haunting us from beyond the grave for another decade by guaranteeing that AEP cannot legally be prosecuted by the federal government for any further violations. Never. No. Matter. What.

Outraged by such get out of jail free cards in this and many other such settlements, the Sierra Club and the other parties refused to agree to such terms and retain the right to sue AEP -- or any other evil-doer -- for any future nefarious behavior. Such is the beauty of the Clean Air Act's "citizen suit" provision. Indeed, when the feds recently began a prosecution of Massey Energy for its thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act stemming from mountain top removal coal mining -- lining them up for more than $2 billion in fines, Sierra Club became an intervenor in the case specifically to prevent the Bush administration from cutting Massey a sweetheart deal.

This administration's environmental policies have driven me to drink, but I never thought the hangover would last ten years.