Struggling for Air: Power Plants and the "War on Coal"

by Richard L. Revesz, Jack Lienke

Since the beginning of the Obama Administration, conservative politicians have railed against the President's "War on Coal." As evidence of this supposed siege, they point to a series of rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency that aim to slash air pollution from the nation's power sector . Because coal produces far more pollution than any other major energy source, these rules are expected to further reduce its already shrinking share of the electricity market in favor of cleaner options like natural gas and solar power. But the EPA's policies are hardly the "unprecedented regulatory assault " that opponents make them out to be. Instead, they are merely the latest chapter in a multi-decade struggle to overcome a tragic flaw in our nation's most important environmental law.

In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, which had the remarkably ambitious goal of eliminating essentially all air pollution that posed a threat to public health or welfare. But there was a problem: for some of the most common pollutants, Congress empowered the EPA to set emission limits only for newly constructed industrial facilities, most notably power plants. Existing plants, by contrast, would be largely exempt from direct federal regulation-a regulatory practice known as "grandfathering." What lawmakers didn't anticipate was that imposing costly requirements on new plants while giving existing ones a pass would simply encourage those old plants to stay in business much longer than originally planned. Since 1970, the core problems of U.S. environmental policy have flowed inexorably from the smokestacks of these coal-fired clunkers, which continue to pollute at far higher rates than their younger peers.

In Struggling for Air, Richard L. Revesz and Jack Lienke chronicle the political compromises that gave rise to grandfathering, its deadly consequences, and the repeated attempts-by presidential administrations of both parties-to make things right.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2015

Reviews

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to complex legislative history regarding energy resources, give me a straightforward read like this every time. Revesz and Lienke produce a (-n almost) single-driver history of the Clean Air Act in the USA that hinges its argument on the flawed allowance for "grandfathered" coal plants as the mortal flaw, the hamartia of the legislators and policy-makers whose intentions could have been so much better fulfilled. Along the way, the two clarify the bipartisan history of energy regulations in the USA – to counter the rise of dead-brained partisan accusations of, at the time, "Obama's War on Coal" – and they make a clear case for students of implementations of environmental policy to really, really loathe the industry's so-called "rational" pursuit of wealth over human concern for health, both human and ecological. Rarely dramatic, Revesz and Lienke do stress the human deaths that coal pollution have caused.

Ultimately, Struggling for Air won't convince that part of the tragically misled electorate who have been manipulated into a set of a-historical and anti-scientific beliefs about climate change, but in fairness it's not trying to do that. Instead, staying on the right side of history, Revesz and Lienke are content to note that coal plants are on the decline (which has been well corroborated by succeeding events - as CBC reports today) for reasons connected to the Clean Air Act, but which would be unnecessary if the policy had been crafted correctly the first time - or if the many industry lobbyists had not been so distressingly successful. The most unsettled part of the book is its author's latent faith in the American system at a time when, during President Obama's tenure, the future seemed good for environmental policy. We know how that turned out. It is a credit to them that their predictions on the issue of coal were nevertheless accurate.

A good story, told with great information and a good admixture of brevity and style. Recommended.

[Vilas Annavarapu · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok i'll be real, the drama of this title made me think i was in for a scintillating takedown of the coal industry and a radical reimagination of power generation in this country.

instead, i got a pretty clear history of the power of special interests in shaping federal policy, the long-time ineptitude of the EPA, and a deeper understanding of how exactly we'll all be drowning in acid rain in the coming years.

few things that stood out:
- the Clean Air Act is a really good case study in unintended policy consequences. "grandfathering" old coal based power plants by not subjecting them to the regulations new plants would face only prolonged their lives + increased environmental harm
- states are bad at coordinating environmental policy. with something like air pollution, it's harder to assess which actors are responsible (still possible though) and therefor easier to diffuse the blame. much like the sulfates being diffused into the atmosphere to kill us all.
- it's hilarious that when Congress made more rules to limit the amount of ground pollution, power plants built taller smokestacks. and we were cool with that for a while.
- cap and trade when done well seems like a good and effective policy
- so much of this book is about administrative enforcement. Congress passing laws is half the battle. so much of the language in these bills is vague and it takes real political will to enforce the intent of the law. even then, courts interfere and states can be really difficult to work with.
- there was way more bipartisan environmental efforts in the 1970s than I would have guessed.