Ricky Junquera, ricky.junquera@sierraclub.org
JACKSONVILLE, FL - As coal-fired power plants across the country start to analyze the cost of adding pollution controls to their smokestacks, Jacksonville’s Northside Generating Station squeaks by this round of regulation. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the Biden Administration’s proposed Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which will protect Americans from dangerous cross-state air pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources.
The Biden Administration made a commitment to take bold and historic climate action that centers on environmental justice that can only be accomplished with swift action to reduce all levels of pollution. Currently, there are more than 150 coal-burning power plant units across the country lacking pollution control technologies with no plans to retire before 2026. Jacksonville’s Northside Generation Station has two of those coal units without any technology limiting the toxins being released into the air.
Under the proposal, power-sector polluters will have to drastically reduce their emissions levels by 29% during ozone seasons, and the rule would reduce overall NOx emissions by 94,000 tons per year. The proposal also provides answers for downwind states impacted by pollution originating in another state. While today's proposed EPA rule does not directly impact plants in Florida, it signals increasing attention on large polluters that lack modern pollution controls. Jacksonville’s Northside Generating Station generates 910 tons of NOx emissions per year.
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions react in the presence of heat and sunlight to create ground-level ozone or smog. These emissions can affect air quality and public health locally, regionally, and in states hundreds of miles downwind.
In response to the new rule, Susannah Randolph, State Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Florida released the following statement:
“JEA’s Northside Generating Station is one of a handful of coal plants that don’t have modern pollution controls for nitrogen oxides, pollutants which can lead to respiratory issues and diseases. The Biden Administration is taking action to reduce harmful pollution from coal plants, and the lack of modern controls makes the Northside plant extremely vulnerable to regulatory risk and could require hundreds of millions of dollars to correct. JEA’s remaining coal plant is increasingly a financial millstone around its customers’ necks.
"Fortunately, JEA is currently in the process of creating an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that can include an ambitious retirement date for coal and set the course for a transition to clean, renewable energy that will not only improve the health of Jacksonville residents but will avoid the need for costly pollution controls.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.