North Dakota might have a booming energy economy, but you can’t tell it by the quality of air surrounding the state’s power plants. The North Dakota Department of Health has successfully designed, implemented and enforced air quality programs that puts us at the top—one of only 12 states in the nation which complies with all federal ambient air quality standards.
Included in the state’s clean air program is a plan that has been in the works for four years. The health department’s plan for reducing pollution-caused haze requires North Dakota’s coal-based power plants to upgrade equipment that has been proven to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 60 percent.
But the folks at EPA have other plans. It has drafted rules that would require North Dakota to dump its own plan in favor of an EPA proposal costing $700 million MORE than the state’s plan. To justify this added cost, EPA insists its plan will cut emissions of nitrogen oxide by 90 percent.
At a hearing in mid-October in Bismarck, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple questioned those claims. “The technology that EPA proposes isn’t even proven to work with our lignite coal, and would cost the state 14 times more than the state plan,” said Dalrymple. “EPA’s plan makes no economic or environmental sense.”
Your voice is needed
The governor expressed his opinion of EPA’s plan to override North Dakota’s authority to regulate its own industry. He urged EPA to abide by the Clean Air Act which allows states to regulate their own industries.
Your cooperative urges you to join the governor in relaying this message to the EPA. It’s important that EPA hears from you and all North Dakotans who believe that we are fully capable of regulating our own air quality without spending exorbitant amounts of money on technology that hasn’t been proven to work with North Dakota’s lignite.
Please submit your written comments to EPA by the deadline, Nov. 21! For more information and to submit your comments, please visit http://www.stopepand.com/ where you may fill out a form that will be emailed to EPA. Or log into your Facebook account and visit this page: http://www.facebook.com/StopEPAND. The “take action now” image below will take you directly to the form. Don’t hesitate to stand up for North Dakota.
Where can I see the regional haze in question?
Nowhere in North Dakota. In 2010, the American Lung Association ranked Mercer County (home to several coal-based power plants) as one of the 26 cleanest counties in the US. Billings County, home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, is the third cleanest. While the EPA plan to reduce regional haze must be focused on what is visible to the human eye, its proposal will not provide perceptible improvement in visibility.
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