Understanding Government

Lee Bergquist and Thomas Content of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analyze the local impact of the new EPA rule to fight ozone and particle pollution from power plants. The authors focus on the higher electric bills that may result from the regulation. But the more important issue seems to be whether EPA’s claim is true that the “rule will save up to 34,000 lives a year.” That seems well worth a slight increase in fees to Wisconsin electricity users.

A section of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood has lead levels in the atmosphere that exceed the amount allowable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA released a preliminary report on the area Wednesday, reports the Chicago Sun-Times’ Monifa Thomas. If a final report, released this fall, comes to the same conclusion, then the state must submit a lead reduction plan to U.S. EPA. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne first documented in March that dangerous levels of lead were actually being emitted near an elementary school in Pilsen. The likely culprit is the nearby H Kramer & Co. smelting plant.

It’s one thing for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be mad at an oil company, but, in the case of a proposed oil pipeline that will start in Alberta, Canada and snake through the Midwest, EPA is directing their ire at the State Department. The State Department must approve a pipeline built by TransCanada that will start in Alberta, because it crosses the American border. Elizabeth McGowan at Solve Climate reports that the State Dept. seems unconcerned about the numerous environmental problems — for greenhouse gas emissions, for migratory birds, for wetlands — that such an enormous pipeline might cause. (more…)

St. Patrick's Day in Chicago

Three weeks ago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanded Illinois and Cook County clean up the Chicago River in order to make it suitable for recreation. Cook County’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District has — for eight years running — opposed spending money to clean up waste from the water. But the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne has an in-depth report explaining how and why Cook County’s water bureaucrats have acceded to EPA wishes. So the County will now take action like forking over the money for equipment used to scour for disease-causing bacteria.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has written more stringent regulations for sulfur dioxide emissions and a handful of Illinois communities must figure out how to comply. Ed McMenamin of GateHouse News Service reports on Pekin in central Illinois, where a public meeting was held yesterday on how to lower sulfur emissions, which can cause respiratory problems.

New sulfur dioxide regulations affect Illinois more than most states. Coal used in Illinois power plants has one of the highest concentrations of sulfur in the country.