For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 11, 2015 - 12:00pm
Physicians, Sierra Club Take Gov.
Hogan to Court for Unlawfully Blocking Clean Air Safeguards
Critical protection for Marylanders suffering from asthma
blocked even though most of the state receives a failing grade for High Ozone
Days
BALTIMORE, MD - Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility
and Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, filed suit today asserting that
Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland Division of State Documents unlawfully
blocked a new clean air safeguard that would protect Marylanders suffering from
asthma and other harmful effects of ozone pollution, commonly known as “smog.”
The safeguard — known as the NOx Regulation — would protect
public health by reducing nitrogen dioxide pollution from coal-fired power
plants that leads to harmful ozone levels like the Code Orange Day predicted
for Baltimore today. Prince George’s County, Baltimore City and County, and
Anne Arundel County received an “F” from the American Lung Association for High
Ozone Days; Montgomery County got a “D”. Children, the elderly, minorities and
low income households are especially sensitive to ozone pollution; often
bearing a disproportionate asthma burden. Ozone is known to make asthma
symptoms worse and increase sensitivity to asthma triggers.
“These protections would result in fewer new cases of asthma in
children, fewer heart attacks in adults, and fewer deaths from respiratory illness.
They would allow those suffering from this pollution to breathe a little
easier,” said Gwen DuBois, an internist at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, a
member of the board of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility and a
member of the public health committee of The Maryland State Medical Society.
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) adopted the
safeguards on January 16, 2015, after a more than year-long stakeholder
process. Even though all but one stakeholder including the owner of three
Maryland coal plants supported it, Governor Hogan essentially tossed out the
result of this process without explanation. By unlawfully blocking the
regulation, Gov. Hogan forced MDE to issue an emergency regulation last month
to reduce NOx emissions for this year’s ozone season. Although his
administration has claimed that it will start a new process to consider
long-term NOx reductions, even if such a process occurs it would simply
duplicate the one MDE’s already conducted last year and could lead to a far
less protective standard.
Today’s lawsuit seeks to require the Division of State Documents
to publish the NOx Regulation and to prohibit Governor Hogan from further
blocking it.
“By blocking these critical public health protections, Gov.
Hogan acted contrary to both public opinion and the law,” said Michael Soules,
Earthjustice’s lead counsel on this case. “The law is clear: once these
safeguards were adopted, they were official and the new Governor could not
lawfully block them.”
“We’re going to hold the Governor accountable in court, because
no one should have to breathe dirty air when the solutions already exist,” said
Maryland Sierra Club Director Josh Tulkin. “For the sake of our health, these
dirty plants need to install state-of-the-art pollution controls, repower to
cleaner fuel, or retire by the end of the decade.”
BACKGROUND:
The NOx Regulations would require coal-fired power plants in
Maryland to install and use the same types of modern pollution controls that
are more prevalent on coal plants in states throughout the country, including
traditional coal states such as West Virginia, Alabama and Kentucky. Less than
half of the coal units in Maryland are equipped with such modern controls.
After a lengthy stakeholder process that garnered the support of
public health advocates, Maryland’s independent air quality advisory council,
The Maryland State Medical Society and the owner of three large coal plants in
the state, the Maryland Department of the Environment finalized the standards,
known as the nitrogen oxide (NOx) Reasonably Available Control Technology
(RACT) rule. That rule was adopted by the agency on January 16, 2015 and
submitted that same day for publication in the Maryland Register.
On Gov. Hogan’s first day in office, however, he issued a directive
to the Division of State Documents blocking publication of the rule. In their
lawsuit, Sierra Club and CPSR make clear that the Governor lacked the authority
to block these safeguards, and that the Division of State Documents is legally
required to publish the rule so that it can be enforced.
Subsequently, Gov. Hogan’s MDE announced a plan to move forward
with an incomplete dramatically weakened version of the regulations through a
non-public “emergency” rulemaking process.
###
Physicians for Social Responsibility is a non-profit advocacy
organization that is the medical and public health voice for policies to
prevent nuclear war and proliferation and to slow, stop and reverse global
warming and toxic degradation of the environment.
Organization Links
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment