New Source Review is a provision under the Clean Air Act that protects Americans from vast increases in pollution. It requires companies that
expand or modify their facilities to either (1) prevent additional pollution by offsetting any increases with reductions in other sources at the same
plant site, or (2) obtain a clean air permit demonstrating that best available pollution control technology has been installed. While this
provision is important for the regulation of all refineries and power plants, it is an especially vital enforcement tool for old, "grandfathered" plants,
which were built in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, and emit four to 10 times more pollution than modern plants.
These grandfathered plants harm human health and the environment. Out of the entire electric industry, coal-fired power plants contribute 96% of
sulfur dioxide emissions, 93% of nitrogen oxide emissions, 88% of carbon dioxide emissions, and 99% of mercury emissions. Half of these mercury
emissions can travel up to 600 miles from the plant.
These pollutants contribute heavily to smog, acid rain, global warming, and mercury contamination. In fact, they have been found, after repeated
exposure to cause as much damage to human lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. High smog levels in the eastern United States cause
159,000 trips to the emergency room, 53,000 hospital admissions, and six
million asthma attacks each summer.
Air pollution is also a main source of water pollution, contributing 27% of the nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay, 80% of the mercury in the Delaware
Bay, and up to 90% of the PCBs found in Lake Superior.
New Source Review has been instrumental in counteracting these destructive effects. Over the past two years enforcement of the NSR
provision has caused 30% of the refining industry to agree to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce illegal air pollutants from several
dozen refineries. On average, the companies that have agreed to install advanced air pollution controls under settlements with the EPA will reduce
their emissions of harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at refineries
by 70%.
Over the last year, the Administration has been conducting a review of the New Source Review program. They received over 130,000 comments, most
asking that the program not be weakened. In June, the Bush Administration announced proposed changes to the New Source Review
program that create new loopholes for polluting industries. These include changes in the way that pollution is calculated, as well as exemptions
from review for some types of projects. Despite reviewing these changes for at least a year, they have not analyzed the impact that the changes
will have on public health, nor have they provided the public an opportunity to comment on their proposed changes.