Senate Briefing of Powering the South - March 5, 2002

Powering the South: A Clean and Affordable Energy Plan

Tuesday, March 5, 2002

2:00 – 3:30 p.m., 124 Senate Dirksen Office Building

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute invites you to a Congressional briefing on a just released report by the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP), entitled “Powering the South: A Clean and Affordable Energy Plan for the Southern United States.” The six states featured in the report are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The region has some of the worst air pollution and health-related problems in the nation. In fact, according to the New York Times (January 9, 2002), most of the particulate pollution in the nation is centered in the southeast United States and comes from high-polluting coal power plants. The report finds that the tools necessary for a clean energy future for the South include federal legislation, which is now being debated in the Congress.



“Powering the South” is particularly timely for policymakers because of the national debate underway on energy policy, the Clean Air Act and power plant pollution. Several northeastern states have sued numerous coal plants alleging violations of New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has been developing four-pollutant legislation to address power plant emissions (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide), while the Bush Administration introduced its Clear Skies Initiative on February 14th, which calls for a three-pollutant market-based approach to reduce power plant emissions (nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury) by 70 percent by 2018. In addition, there are proposals to weaken New Source Review (regulations that require power plants to upgrade their pollution control equipment when they upgrade their operations).



“Powering the South” is the result of over a year’s effort by REPP and southern advocacy groups. The group was looking for a pathway to a clean, affordable energy future for the South. The focus of the effort was to explore how the power generation mix of the South could be changed to drastically reduce pollution and not raise the price of electricity to end-users. The report shows that a clean generation mix can meet the region’s power demands and reduce pollution by early retirement of coal plants built before 1960, development of strong efficiency programs, and the phase in of renewable energy. A number of the policies suggested in the report are part of the legislation (S.517) currently being considered on the Senate floor.



The findings of the report and how it can help inform the current debate on energy policy will be discussed by the following panel of experts:


George Sterzinger, Executive Director, Renewable Energy Policy Project Rita Kilpatrick, Executive Director, Georgians for Clean Energy Stephen Smith, Executive Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Tom Kerr, Energy Supply and Industry Branch Chief, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Curtis Moore, Editor, Health & Clean Air Newsletter Milton Farris, Chairman of the Board, Future Energy Resources Company (FERCO)


This briefing is open to the public and reservations are not required. For more information, please contact Beth Bleil of EESI at 202-662-1885 or bbleil@eesi.org.