Senator To Protest Carbon Rule At A Plant Whose CEO Supports Regulating Carbon Pollution
The 1489-megawatt plant is also one of the nation’s dirtiest, according to an Environment America report.
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Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La. speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal looks on Wednesday, June 18, 2008.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is scheduled to hold an event at her state’s biggest coal-fired power plant on Monday, in a move designed to highlight her opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s new proposed limits on carbon pollution from coal plants.
Problem is, the coal plant she’s highlighting — the Big Cajun 2 power plant in New Roads, La. — is one of the nation’s dirtiest, most known for being the subject a high-profile U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over its toxic emissions. What’s more, the CEO of the company that owns the plant recently said he believes that EPA should be regulating carbon pollution from coal plants, perplexing some as to why she chose to put a spotlight on that plant.
“It’s really weird that she would choose one of the largest polluters in the nation to highlight her opposition to these protections,” said, Jenna Garland, deputy press secretary at the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “Based on the CEO’s public statements, I’m not too sure he’s going to be happy about this.”
In an interview with Fast Company last week, NRG Energy CEO David Crane said he wasn’t thrilled about the regulations — but only because they didn’t include other carbon-polluting forms of energy as well. “The EPA should be regulating coal plants from a carbon perspective,” Crane said. A spokesperson from NRG Energy, which owns Big Cajun, did not immediately return ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
The 1489-megawatt plant is also one of the nation’s dirtiest, according to an Environment America report. Out of more than 600 plants in the U.S., Big Cajun 2 is currently the 20th-largest carbon polluter, the report said. The plant emitted 13.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2011 — the same as the emissions from 2.75 million cars, the report said.
Emissions from the Big Cajun 2 have also caused myriad health problems in the communities that surround it. A study commissioned by the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force estimated that fine particle pollution from the Big Cajun 2 plant in 2012 caused 23 deaths, 32 heart attacks, 410 asthma attacks, and 14 cases of chronic bronchitis — health impacts monetized at about $180 million.
Health problems and emissions have likely decreased since 2011, if only because of a $250 million settlement agreement NRG entered into with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012. That settlement ended the DOJ’s 2009 lawsuit accusing Big Cajun 2 of pumping large amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides(NOx) — two powerful greenhouse gases — into the atmosphere in violation of the Clean Air Act. At the time of the settlement, the assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division called Big Cajun 2 “the largest source of illegal air pollution in Louisiana.”
In addition to paying $250 million to install pollution control equipment, NRG was also required to pay a civil fine of $3.5 million, and spend an additional $10.5 million on environmental projects in the state. Those projects included restoring watersheds and forests; installing solar panels at local schools, government-owned facilities or buildings owned by nonprofit groups; and creating charging stations for electric vehicles to be supplied with zero emission renewable energy sources.
“This lawsuit was a pretty huge deal,” said Garland, whose group has worked to fight multiple proposed expansions to the plant. “They were pumping out huge amount of sulfur dioxide pollution in very blatant violation of the law.”
A search of violations from the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online database for the years 2012-2014 also showed a violation as recent as February 2014, in which a “a formal enforcement action” was taken against the plant that resulted in penalty of nearly $47,000.
Compared to other states, the EPA’s carbon rule calls for Louisiana to make slightly steeper-than-average cuts to carbon emissions from power plants. This is largely because it estimated that it would be easier for Louisiana to cut emissions than other states given how it emits CO2. Specifically, it recommends making emissions cuts of nearly 40 percent — from 1,466 pounds per megawatt-hour in 2012 to 833 pounds per megawatt-hour in 2030. On average, the rules call for a 30 percent emissions cut nationwide by 2030.
However, Louisiana does not get majority of its power from coal — according to the EPA, the state got just under 21 percent of its power from coal in 2012, with natural gas plants accounting for nearly 58 percent; nuclear accounting for 15 percent; and biomass about 2.3 percent.
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Las Vegas Shooters Allegedly Spent Time At Bundy Ranch, Embraced White Supremacy
Police found swastika symbols in the shooters’ home.
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CREDIT: AP
A married couple who reportedly bragged about their ties to white supremacists killed two police officers, another person, and ultimately themselves in Las Vegas on Sunday. According to neighbors, the duo — whose names have not been publicly released — “had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views, bragging about their gun collection and boasting that they’d spent time at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during a recent standoff there between armed militia members and federal government agents.”
The incident comes just days after the Department of Justice announced that it was relaunching a law enforcement group to investigate domestic terrorism. The so-called “Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee” was formed after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, but was disbanded in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
“We face an escalating danger from self-radicalized individuals within our own borders,” Holder said in a video announcing the re-formation of the group. “Now — as the nature of the threat we face evolves to include the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet — it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home.”
Though the group was formed in response to criticism that the FBI did not to share information with local law enforcement agencies about the radicalization of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the brothers allegedly responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, DOJ cited a Congressional Research Service report showing that “domestic terrorists were responsible for more than two dozen incidents in the U.S. since 9/11.” A count by the New America Foundation found that “right wing extremists have killed 34 people in the United States for political reasons” between 9/11 and April of 2014.
Some of that violence is fueled by groups and individuals devoted to white supremacist ideology, a movement that is “largely driven by the demographic ‘browning’ of the population and predictions of the loss of a white majority in the next 30 years.” The Southern Poverty Law Center notes that these groups experienced “four years of spectacular growth” in the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election and the “nearly simultaneous collapse of the economy,” but saw its “first significant decrease in 2013.”
The Vegas shooting comes in the aftermath of a recent anti-Jewish fueled shooting spree in Kansas City, Kansas in April, the killing of six Sikhs in a Wisconsin temple in 2012 and the murder of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in 2009.
The two shooters in Las Vegas allegedly shouted “this is the start of a revolution” before opening fire at the two officers — Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo — and draped their bodies with a “don’t tread on me” Revolution-era flag. Police later found swastika symbols in the shooters’ home.
Update
The shooters have been identified as Jerad and Amanda Miller. A NBC affiliate has this video of Jared Miller speaking to reporters at the Bundy ranch in April: “I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around or something like that. I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re going to come bring violence to us, well if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it,” he says. Watch 45 seconds in:
Update
NBC news is reporting that the Millers “left their apartment with a shopping cart full of weapons” and that Jerad told a neighbor, “We gotta do what we gotta do.” His wife added, “I am so sorry.” Another neighbor claimed the Millers “wanted to overthrow the government and President Barack Obama and kill police officers.”
Update
Cliven Bundy’s son told the Associated Press that “Jerad and Amanda Miller were asked to leave his father’s ranch after being there for a few days this spring,” claiming that they were “very radical.” “Not very many people were asked to leave,” he said. “I think they may have been the only ones.”
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