Smokers Cannot Complain About Air Pollution
If you smoke cigarettes then you should not complain about outdoor air quality. In fact, if you smoke inside around nonsmokers, then you are a toxic emitter and should be regulated by EPA. And don't blame Mayor Bloomberg for any cardiovascular problems you might experience because he has done all he can to prevent you from smoking.
Bloomberg pushed through a huge cigarette tax a few years ago and then pushed through the smoking-in-bars ban. Bloomberg, worth $5.1 billion is the 40th richest man in the USA according to Forbes, he announced in August 2006 that he would give $125 million over two years to boost anti-smoking efforts. The groups that will receive the funds have not been selected.
Good work Mr. Mayor. You might not have the power to clean outdoor air during the summer, but you sure are working hard to clean indoor air all year long.
NY Adopts California Carbon Dioxide Standard
New York Governor George Pataki intends for New York to adopt California's limits on automobile emissions of carbon dioxide. The California program was approved by the state legislature in 2002 requires manufacturers to being cutting carbon dioxide emissions in the 2009 model year, with a goal of reducing such emissions by 30 percent by the 2016 model year. The program faces a legal challenge by the auto industry that will have to be resolved. Governor Schwarzenegger supports the carbon dioxide measure in California.
Hybrid Taxicabs in New York
New York City has about 12,000 taxis and 18 new hybrid vehicles are about to join that fleet.The small Ford Escape SUV hybrids generally emit no exhaust when driving under 25 mph because they are running on battery power. The vehicles were purchased for $170,000 and approved by New Yroks Taxi and Limousine Commission.
GOVERNOR AND ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCE NEW YORK'S
LARGEST COAL PLANTS TO SLASH POLLUTION LEVELS
January 2005 -- Governor George E. Pataki and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced two landmark agreements that will dramatically reduce emissions from six upstate coal-fired power plants, including the state's two largest polluting power plants.
Combined, the settlements represent the largest reduction in air pollution levels ever attained through settlement in New York. Together they will reduce NOx emissions by more than 18,000 tons annually - the equivalent of removing 2.5 million cars from New York's roads. SO2 emissions will decrease by more than 123,000 tons per year - the equivalent of removing every diesel truck and bus operating in the U.S.
These historic agreements will dramatically enhance air quality in New York, improve public health and help preserve the state's greatest natural treasure, the Adirondack Park. Under a settlement of the state's lawsuit with NRG Energy Inc. (NRG), the company will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 87 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 81 percent at its Huntley and Dunkirk power plants in Western New York.
In addition, the state has reached an agreement with AES and New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) to reduce emissions at four former NYSEG coal-burning power plants in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier. Under the terms of the agreement, AES will reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) at the four plants by at least 70 percent and sulfur dioxide (SO2) by at least 90 percent.
Under its agreement with the state, NRG will reduce emissions through a combination of installing new pollution controls, switching to cleaner burning low-sulfur coal, and retiring the four oldest and most inefficient units of the Huntley coal plant.
The agreement also requires the previous owner of the plants, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (NiMo) to pay a $3 million penalty and provide an additional $3 million to support several environmental benefit projects in Western New York, including weatherizing low-income housing and adding pollution controls to school buses.
NiMo also has agreed to convey 2,500 acres of environmentally sensitive land along the Salmon River to the state. The Oswego County parcel is valued at more than $2.5 million.
As part of its agreement with the state, AES, as the current owner of the plants, will install innovative clean coal technology at its Greenidge Power Plant in the Town of Torrey as a demonstration project approved and partially funded by the Department of Energy. AES will also either shutdown or install new pollution controls at its Hickling facility in Corning, the Westover plant in Johnson City and the Jennison facility in Bainbridge. AES already is utilizing state-of-the-art pollution control equipment at other major facilities in the towns of Barker and Lansing.
In addition, a $700,000 penalty has been assessed against NYSEG, and AES will provide $1 million toward energy efficiency, renewable energy or clean air projects.
In the original lawsuit against NRG and NiMo in 2002, the state charged that NiMo had made major modifications at its Huntley and Dunkirk plants while failing to install the necessary state-of-the-art pollution controls as the law requires, and that NRG, which bought the plants in 1999, also violated the law by continuing to operate the plants without proper pollution controls.
Under the Clean Air Act, older power plants like those now operated by NRG and AES were exempted from having to comply with the stricter air pollution standards under the New Source Review rules unless they underwent major modifications that increased their pollution. This "grandfathering" was based on the assumption that these plants would be retired and replaced by new cleaner power plants. However, some companies, as alleged in these cases, modified their power plants to extend their life span while claiming that the modifications were routine maintenance and therefore exempt from the stricter pollution control requirements.
The settlements build on a national clean air initiative begun by Spitzer in September 1999. The Attorney General, citing Clean Air Act violations, sued eight utilities that operate 17 Midwest power plants. One of those companies, VEPCO, settled in 2003, agreeing to significant reductions in emissions. Cases against companies in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana, are pending.
The Governor also is spearheading a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to develop a flexible, market-based cap and trade program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants from Maine to Maryland and has called for stronger federal action to further improve air quality.
Both the NRG/NiMo and AES/NYSEG settlements are available for public review on the Attorney General's website at www.oag.state.ny.us or at the Attorney General's regional office in Buffalo and will be published by the DEC in the Environmental Notice Bulletin.
For more information please contact Jennifer Meicht in Governor Pataki's Press Office at 518-474-8418 and Marc Violette in the Attorney General's Office at 518-473-5525.
