Milestones: New limits on power plants’ carbon

A turning point in power plant pollution

The findings of a February 26, 2018, report are remarkable: In a little more than a decade, nine states have cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from their electricity-generating power plants in half. A subsequent study finds this progress outpaces the rest of the nation by 90%.

What went right?

The answer starts in 1997. In that year, MASSPIRG and Community Action Works (then called Toxics Action Center), along with other members of the Clean Air Now coalition, join forces to rein in pollution from New England power plants, which have escaped modern emission limits due to a loophole in the Clean Air Act. The coalition decides to focus on power plants’ role in four types of pollution: smog, soot, mercury and global warming.

The decision to call for limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions is a bold one: At this time, there are no state or federal limits on these emissions. None.

A call to clean up the ‘Filthy Five’      

The first breakthrough in the power plant campaign comes in Massachusetts.

Five of the country’s oldest and dirtiest plants produce much of the state’s global warming pollution. MASSPIRG’s Rob Sargent dubs them the “Filthy Five” and, together with Clean Water Action and dozens of local groups, calls on the state to clean them up or shut them down.

In the fall of 1998, Rob discovers that state law allows any citizen to petition a state agency to adopt a regulation and compel the agency to respond. MASSPIRG files a petition urging the Department of Environmental Protection to set tough pollution limits for the Filthy Five. On Oct. 1 of the same year, Gov. Cellucci signs a pledge to do just that. On April 23, 2001, after MASSPIRG and our allies help turn out 1,000 citizens to public hearings, Gov. Jane Swift (who succeeds Gov. Cellucci after he is appointed ambassador to Canada) fulfills his pledge — making Massachusetts the first in the nation to limit carbon (and mercury) emissions from power plants.

By 2017, the Filthy Five power plants are all shut down. A solar farm sits atop the site of one coal-fired plant in Holyoke, Mass. An offshore wind facility is proposed for another, in Salem.

‘Come back stronger’

In Connecticut, as part of their Green Corps training program, Bernadette Del Chiaro and Merc Pittinos are assigned to build public support for a bill to clean up the state’s Sooty Six power plants. (Cindy Kang, then a Yale student, also joins the Sooty Six campaign as a volunteer, and later becomes Green Corps executive director from 2008 to 2012.)

Year after year after year, the campaign builds support but falls short. Undaunted, the campaign team vows that “If we lose, we lose big and come back stronger.” Finally, in 2002 Gov. John Rowland signs the first law in the country to limit power plant carbon pollution.

The best climate program you’ve never heard of

By 2003, as similar PIRG-led campaigns to clean up power plant carbon emissions are making inroads in other Northeastern states, New York Gov. George Pataki invites the region’s other governors to discuss a joint program to curb their pollution.

In 2005, the governors create the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation’s first carbon cap-and-trade program, requiring power plants to pay for their pollution and reinvesting the money in clean energy.

Seven states sign up in 2005. In 2007, three more (Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) join; in 2020, New Jersey rejoins (after leaving under Gov. Chris Christie) and Virginia signs up; Pennsylvania is on track to join in 2022. In each case, states join or rejoin after PIRG or our state environmental groups urge them to do so.

RGGI becomes a driving force in reducing power plant emissions and, through its clean energy investments, saves consumers nearly $400 million on their power bills.

In 2015, following advocacy and organizing by Environment America, the U.S. EPA announces a federal plan to limit climate pollution from electricity generation across the country. The plan is challenged in court and by the Trump administration. But the writing is on the wall: generating power by warming the climate is coming at an increasingly high cost that even many utilities are no longer willing to pay.

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on climate change below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s climate change milestones.