Renner Barsella, Sierra Club, (217) 390-9394, renner.barsella@sierraclub.org
Robert Ukeiley, Center for Biological Diversity, (720) 496-8568, rukeiley@biologicaldiversity.org (Attorney)
Caroline Cox, Center for Environmental Health, (510) 655-3900 x 308, Caroline@ceh.org
CHICAGO— Conservation groups filed an amended complaint today to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure that Illinois’ Clean Air Act state implementation plan includes measures to prohibit conflicts of interest on state boards and agency leadership overseeing regulatory matters on air pollution. The groups sued EPA this fall for failing to ensure the same protective measures are in place in Mississippi and Alabama.
The Clean Air Act requires that any potential conflicts of interest of state board members and heads of executive agencies be adequately disclosed. The Clean Air Act also requires every state to have a conflict of interest plan for air boards that are included in state implementation plans.
“Illinois residents shouldn’t have to wonder about the loyalties of people entrusted to regulate dangerous air pollution,” said Robert Ukeiley, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program. “The EPA has failed miserably at making sure people profiting from polluting industries aren’t regulating companies contaminating the air we breathe.”
The issue of independence and accountability is heightened by a recent proposal to weaken state air-quality protections. Illinois regulators are currently considering rolling back protective measures limiting harmful soot and smog pollution from Dynegy coal-burning power plants in an effort to avoid capital costs. It is yet another example of backdoor dealings between Dynegy and the Rauner administration and attempts by the company to receive bailout money from the state.
Hundreds of emails were recently discovered between Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) staff, IEPA Director Alec Messina and Dynegy staff collaborating on how to rewrite the state Multi-Pollutant Standard to alleviate compliance obligations for Dynegy. Messina previously served as the executive director, general counsel and registered lobbyist for the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group (IERG) which lobbies on behalf of numerous polluters, including Dynegy. In 2016, a state's ethics officer ruled that Messina needed to defer engagement in any matters relating to IEPA’s review of water permits, due to his previous employment at IERG.
Governor Rauner’s IEPA and Dynegy’s backdoor proposal to amend the Multi Pollutant Standard (MPS) is unnecessary and would give Dynegy the option to increase air pollution (NOx and SO2) at certain individual Dynegy plants. The proposal includes Baldwin, Coffeen, Duck Creek, Edwards, Havana, Hennepin, Joppa, and Newton coal fired power plants. Any increase in pollution would place an undue public health burden on the communities surrounding the plants and the people who live there.
Some of Dynegy’s plants, including the E.D. Edwards coal plant outside of Peoria, are located in close proximity to communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution, so a potential increase in NOx and SO2 pollution from some of the state’s largest pollution point sources presents environmental justice concerns. Both pose serious health risks, especially for vulnerable community members like infants and small children, the elderly, and asthmatics. These concerns will be raised by grassroots groups from some of the most impacted communities at an Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) hearing being held in Peoria Wednesday morning, January 17, 2018.
Decisions about whether to reduce the exposures of people and wildlife in Illinois to harmful air pollution are made by Messina as head of the IEPA, and the five members of the IPCB.
“The science is clear about the dangers of air pollution,” said, Caroline Cox, research director at the Center for Environmental Health. “But the science only matters if it is applied by decision makers in a fair, impartial manner to serve the public interest.”
In August 2015 the EPA issued a determination that Illinois’ state plan failed to comply with the requirements to prevent conflicts among air pollution regulators and to disclose any potential conflicts. Under the law the agency had two years to fix the problem but failed to do so, forcing the conservation groups to pursue legal action.
“These agencies are making decisions that are literally life and death for many people in Illinois, especially children and the elderly,” said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club Illinois Chapter. “With so much on the line, the public deserves to know if those deciding whether we have clean air or more pollution have any interests other than our health in mind.”
The EPA has until February 1, 2018, to respond to the complaint.
About the Organizations
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.5 million members and supporters dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
The Center for Environmental Health works with parents, communities, businesses, workers, and government to protect children and families from toxic chemicals in homes, workplaces, schools and neighborhoods.
The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization with more than 3 million members and supporters working to safeguard the health of communities, protect wildlife, and preserve wild places through public education, lobbying, and litigation.