New Approaches on Energy and the Environment

CHAPTER

8

Cleaning Up Power Plant Emissions

by Dallas Burtraw and Karen L. Palmer

Mr. President, it is now widely appreciated that the major environmental public health threat facing the nation is exposure to fine particulates in the atmosphere. We recommend an expeditious reduction in the emissions from electric power generators that contribute to this pollution, preferably through a legislative initiative that streamlines the patchwork of existing and anticipated regulatory policy. Reduction in fine particulates should be the central purpose of a national environmental initiative to reduce emissions of multiple pollutants associated with generating electricity, but it needs to be integrated with a policy for greenhouse gas reductions as well. ...