Power Plants

Conventional, coal-burning power plants are associated with major health and environmental impacts.

None of Ohio's coal-burning power plants are currently required to follow the strict emissions standards of the Clean Air Act of 1970, since they were planned or constructed prior to 1973. Congress made the assumption that these plants would retire soon and, therefore, should not be required to install costly pollution-control equipment.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these plants are still running and polluting the air we breathe every day.

By using the best available technology, power plants can reduce the harmful impact of its emissions by more than 90%.

Example of best available technology include:

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)
IGCC produces far less waste sludge and ash than traditional pulverized coal, and small percentages of the nitrogen oxide emissions and sulfur dioxide emissions (NOx and SOx) that pulverized coal plants emits. Without carbon capture technology, IGCC provides a modest carbon reduction, with it the reduction is close to 80% over traditional pulverized coal plants. Mercury emission is dramatically lower in IGCC production, and water quality will improve as a result of its adoption.

IGCC is the best available control technology for the burning of coal to produce energy, and the Ohio EPA and the Federal EPA should recognize this fact and demand that all new coal burning power plants employ IGCC technology.

Fabric Filters (bag houses)
Dry particulates are trapped on filters made of cloth, paper, or similar materials. Particles are shaken or blown from the filters down into a collection hopper. Bag houses are used to control air pollutants from steel mills, foundries, and other industrial furnaces and can collect more than 98% of the particulates.

Electrostatic Precipitators
By use of static electricity, they attract particles in much the same way that static electricity in clothing picks up small bits of dust and lint. Electrostatic precipitators, 98% to 99% effective, are used instead of bag houses when the particles are suspended in very hot gases, such as in emissions from power plants, steel and paper mills, smelters, and cement plants.

Sulfur Dioxide Scrubbers
Lime is injected into the flu gas flow (smoke from the burned coal). The sulfur is attracted to the lime and sticks to the lime. The lime is then removed by an electrical charge.

In spring 2009, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) adopted rules that will govern Ohio's energy efficiency requirements and its Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS). Ohio was one of the last states to have adopted a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) - more broadly defined as a AEPS in Ohio.

These standards are powerful tools; they spurn technological development, green power business, competition among utilities and improvement in environmental conditions.

The OEC has worked diligently for years to help craft these rules and is now fighting to defend them and have them implemented as written. Read OEC's fact sheet.

Several studies have been made on the effects of power plant pollution on human health. For example, the OEC's Ohio Valley-Ozone Alley study examined the notion that these rural communities were unaffected by ozone pollution. the Ohio Valley’s air is clean of ozone-smog. Ohio Valley-Ozone Alley. (PDF)

The Death, Disease and Dirty Power (PDF) report by the Clean Air Task Force examines the effect of fine particulate matter from power plants on the respiratory system.

A study by the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (PDF) disproves the myth that acid rain is no longer a problem any more with the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation explores this issue.

Ohio’s power plants contribute to numerous illness and pollution. Read an overview of Ohio’s power plants in OEC’s report: Power Plant Pollution: Ohio’s Dirty Secret. (PDF)

Promoting Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle power generation and Carbon Capture and Storage (PDF) is a report from the Clean Air Task Force and the OEC that outlines the advantages of IGCC energy production and the best steps in pursuit of its adoption.

The Wisconsin IGCC Report focuses on the strengths, weakness, and barriers to IGCC in the marketplace.