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Letters-to-the editor tips
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 AVON LAKE — “GenOn Energy plans to deactivate its coal-fired power plant in Avon Lake by April 2015.
According to a press release posted on the energy company’s website, the Avon Lake plant is one of many to be closed because of an insufficient return on investment.
‘GenOn expects to deactivate 3,140 MWs of generating capacity in PJM between June 2012 and May 2015 because forecasted returns on investments necessary to comply with environmental regulations are insufficient,’ the release stated.
There are a total of eight plants GenOn will close, including another Ohio plant based in Niles.
The Avon Lake plant recently ran into trouble with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which filed an enforcement action against it for failing to install necessary pollution control devices. NPR released a story in November about a secret U.S. EPA ‘watch list,’ specially mentioning the Avon Lake plant and its lack of pollution control devices during a plant upgrade. The story also indicated the plant released into the air more than 2 million pounds of lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals in 2010, referencing the company’s reporting to the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory.”
— Bryan Wroten, North Ridgeville Press
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— The Morning Journal
 CHICAGO, IL — “Chicago’s two coal-fired power plants will shut down sooner than expected under a deal to be announced today by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and environmental groups.
Midwest Generation will close the Fisk plant in the Pilsen neighborhood by December and the Crawford plant in Little Village by the end of 2014, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Tribune. Companies have mothballed nearly 100 other coal plants across the nation in recent years amid competition from abundant and relatively cheap natural gas and more stringent federal air pollution limits.
Under a 2006 deal with state regulators, prompted by a Tribune investigation, Midwest Generation had agreed to clean up or shut down the Chicago coal plants by 2018.”
— Michael Hawthorne and Kristen Mack, Chicago Tribune
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— Jeff Biggers, Huffington Post
 The late Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes must be rolling in his grave to see that coal has slipped to 8th place on Gov. John Kasich’s energy priority list. CLEVELAND — Ohio Governor John Kasich presented an outline of his energy policy to the Greater Cleveland Partnership on February 28. The Partnership is the name for the Cleveland Area’s Chamber of Commerce. Dominating the priority list is promotion of the oil and gas industry. Kasich said his policy would be introduced as legislation in mid-March.
— Paul Ryder, Assistant Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 Click to expand HOUSTON, TX — “The units expected to be deactivated and timeframes are subject to further review based on market conditions. In particular, while the initial analysis for additional environmental controls at Avon Lake indicated that forecasted returns on those investments were insufficient, the evaluation of the returns on those environmental controls is continuing.
The coal-fired units at Shawville, which is leased, will be placed in long-term protective layup. The required lease payments will continue to be made and the assets will be maintained in accordance with the lease.
Since 2000, GenOn has invested approximately $2.4 billion in environmental controls for the existing plants expected to remain in GenOn’s fleet after the deactivations. Compared to 1990 emission levels, 2011 NOX emissions were reduced by 78% and SO2 emissions were reduced by 90% for those generating facilities. In addition, GenOn expects to make further improvements by investing $586 to $726 million over the next ten years for major environmental controls at some of its generating stations to meet air and water environmental regulations”
— GenOn Energy, Inc.
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 WASHINGTON, D.C. — “The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented 15 “near-misses” at 13 U.S. nuclear plants during 2011 and evaluates the response of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to each event in a report released today.
The second in an annual series of reports, “The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2011 Report: Living on Borrowed Time” details 15 special inspections launched by the federal agency in response to problems with safety equipment, security shortcomings, and other troubling events at nuclear power plants.
The overview is provided by David Lochbaum, the director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project. He worked at U.S. nuclear plants for 17 years and was a boiling water reactor technology instructor for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
‘While none of the safety problems in 2011 caused harm to plant employees or the public, their frequency – more than one per month – is high for a mature industry,’ Lochbaum writes.”
— Environmental News Service
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 AKRON — “The FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. unit of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) has blamed the absence of an exterior weatherproofing coating for cracks in the Shield Building of its Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant in Northwest Ohio.
FirstEnergy’s finding is contained in its Root Cause Analysis Report, which explored the cause of cracks identified in portions of the Shield Building during Davis-Besse’s outage in fall 2011 to replace the plant’s reactor head. The report has been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The 119-page report indicates that the absence of a weatherproof coating on the Shield Building allowed moisture associated with the blizzard of January 1978 to migrate into the concrete, freeze and expand, causing subsurface cracks in portions of the building. The report concludes that the cracking occurred following the blizzard’s combination of extreme weather conditions, ‘which included three days of driving rain preceding a drastic temperature drop to around zero-degrees Fahrenheit and intense winds throughout the storm,’ FirstEnergy stated.”
— Crain’s Cleveland Business
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 WASHINGTON, DC — “Carting along reams of shocking peer-reviewed scientific studies that have been ignored by their own elected officials, the Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) marks the launch of a weekly frontline citizens initiative in Washington, DC with national human rights and health organizations to prod the Obama administration to enact a moratorium on mountaintop removal operations until a federal study and long-awaited Congressional hearings are carried out on the spiraling mountaintop removal mining health care crisis.
One of the most unnecessary environmental and human rights violations in the nation, mountaintop removal mining provides less than 5-7 percent of national coal production, while detonating millions of pounds of daily explosives that have ruined historic communities and watersheds in West Virginia, Kentucky, southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee.
On the heels of a major new study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy on the ‘stalled out’ environmental movement, which urged major funders and foundations to support similar community-based groups most impacted by environmental injustice, the ACHE campaign is also a breakthrough effort of frontline coalfield groups to ‘kick start’ environmental and civil rights groups and ramp up the movement to abolish devastating mountaintop removal mining operations.
…The Appalachian Community Health Emergency is a timely new national initiative, as other state and local campaigns to outlaw mountaintop removal move through committees in state legislatures in Tennessee and Kentucky, and West Virginia activists block mining on historic Blair Mountain, among other areas.”
— Jeff Biggers, EcoWatch
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Without higher charge, company fears fiscal crisis
COLUMBUS — “American Electric Power is asking state regulators to allow the company to increase a fee it charges customers who switch from the utility’s service to an alternative electricity provider.
Without this charge, which would apply to both residential and business customers, the Columbus-based company warns that it might face a financial crisis. Those concerns arose last week after regulators threw out a controversial rate plan, causing AEP shares to fall sharply.
…AEP is proposing that the charge be set at $255 per megawatt-day for customers who sign up for an alternative provider in the next few months, which is about 1.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Customers who switched from AEP to an alternative provider in recent months still would pay the lower charge.”
— Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
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 ALBANY, NY — “Two cases decided last week upholding the right of local governments in New York to prohibit gas drilling within their borders could encourage opponents of the controversial drilling method known as fracking to pass new bans and defend them in court.
On Friday, Acting Supreme Court Justice Donald Cerio held that Middlefield, a town about 70 miles west of Albany, had the authority to ban gas drilling. The ruling came just three days after State Supreme Court Justice Phillip Rumsey dismissed Anschutz Exploration Corporation’s bid to overturn a similar ban in the Ithaca suburb of Dryden, where the company owns leases on more than 220,000 acres of land.
Both judges held that the bans were natural extensions of local governments’ authority to regulate their own land use.
Experts framed the decisions as a victory for opponents in the protracted debate over whether — and where — to allow fracking in New York. Fracking involves blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into wells at high pressure in order to release the natural gas trapped inside rock formations.
‘For the last year or so, the gas industry has been threatening (towns),’you’re going to lose in court, so don’t even waste your money,” said David Clinton, a partner at Gozigian, Washburn & Clinton and the town attorney in Middlefield. ‘So (the rulings) certainly embolden other towns.’”
— Dan Wiessner, Reuters
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 Mayor Frank Jackson CLEVELAND — Neighbors from Cleveland, Brooklyn, Lakewood and Cleveland Heights hand-delivered the following letter to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson before last night’s City Council meeting:
Dear Mayor Jackson,
Over the past two months, hundreds of Clevelanders have devoted thousands of hours of their time to studying the proposed garbage incinerator on Ridge Road. Citizens from across the city and the region came to public hearings to express their opposition to this facility and submitted written comments in opposition to the draft permit.
Last week, U.S. EPA validated the many environmental and permitting flaws which had been raised by the citizens, including the fact that this facility must be regulated as an incinerator (not merely a “gasifier”) and that the levels of emissions of harmful chemicals would qualify it as a “major” source of pollution.
We urge you to:
1) Withdraw the proposed air permit to install for this facility;
2) Cancel this ill-conceived project, which still has no cost estimates or financing mechanisms;
3) Refocus the City’s efforts on developing a strong recycling, composting, and resource recovery program.
It is clear from the six public meetings over the past six weeks that Clevelanders are eager for alternatives to this incinerator and stand ready to work with your administration to implement them.
— Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director, Ohio Citizen Action
NEW YORK, NY — “Despite massive reserves and active participation in the ongoing coal rush of emerging markets, US coal producers are facing a period of sustained lower prices and stalled output. While 2012 is looking bleak, expect a retooling within the industry as companies adapt to the changing marketplace.
The announcement that Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE:ANR) will immediately idle four mines in Kentucky and West Virginia, with plans to idle two more in early 2013, is a clear indication of the current market reality. The Wall Street Journal reported that Alpha will cut some four million tons (MT) of production, of which 2.5 MT are thermal and 1.5 MT are metallurgical.
Other firms are also being affected. Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE:ACI) CEO Steven Leer said at the company’s mid-February 2011 Q4 presentations that Arch is expecting US thermal coal demand to fall by as much as 50 MT this year, with the expectation of ‘more supply cuts in Appalachia and elsewhere in the near term.’
As a result, companies are reacting to changing conditions and are actively looking beyond US borders for customers. Leer said Arch is looking to shift its focus from US markets by ‘expanding [its] presence in the seaborne [thermal] market.’”
— James Wellstead, Coal Investing News
CLEVELAND — Cleveland Utillities Department Director Barry Withers sent a letter on February 23 to Peter Tien of Princeton Environmental Group, telling him they will cancel his contract to design the proposed garbage incinerator unless he corrects deficiencies in his “Design Memorandum” within ten days of the letter. CPP Commissioner Ivan Henderson admitted at a public meeting on February 15 that Tien had submitted new costs estimates for the facility that day, but CPP has yet to make that document public.
Tien has a $1.5 million no-bid contract with CPP to design the proposed garbage incinerator, using the Japanese Kinsei-Sangyo technology that he represents in the U.S. In 2011, Tien was the key figure in the city’s embarrassing proposed no-bid contract with Sunpo-Optu technology to provide LED lightbulbs — a deal that was eventually abandoned by the city. Nonetheless, CPP continued to work with Tien on the highly controversial garbage incinerator proposal.
Despite a contract obligation to hire Clevelanders to work on the incinerator project, Tien allocated 98.5% of his contracting budget to contractors from outside the city, and did not have the money to pay them. One of Tien’s contractors, GT Environmental of Columbus, which drafted the air permit, now appears to be representing Cleveland Public Power, according to a letter Henderson sent to the Cleveland Division of Air Quality on February 23.
— Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director, Ohio Citizen Action
“How is this a part of moving the city and its supporting suburbs into a healthier and more environmentally sustainable place to live, work and play?”
COLUMBUS — “A new analysis is shedding light on a little-known source of toxic air pollution. Industrial boilers are the on-site power plants used by major industrial operations. They are believed to be contributing to the deaths of thousands of people across the country and in Ohio.
A report from Earthjustice finds these boilers are releasing millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air, including 800 pounds of mercury each year in Ohio alone. Earthjustice staff attorney Jim Pew explains that so much mercury can do a lot of damage.
‘Less than a teaspoon is enough to contaminate a 20-acre lake to the point where that lake is not safe to eat fish from, so 800 pounds is a remarkable amount – especially given that Ohio has other sources of mercury, as well.’
Among the states, Ohio ranks second for boiler emissions of mercury and first for lead and chromium emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing tighter boiler air-pollution standards that will bring industrial plants into Clean Air Act compliance, like other power plants. Some in the industry fear the planned federal rules could slow economic growth.”
— Mary Kuhlman, Public News Service
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 CLEVELAND — In an attempt to avoid federal regulation as a “major” source of pollution under the Clean Air Act, Cleveland Public Power announced on February 23, 2012, that it plans to have three combustion units at is proposed garbage incinerator rather than four. Cleveland Public Power says it now plans to run the three incinerator units at 96% capacity rather than four units at 72% capacity, as outlined in its draft permit.
The City’s press release stated the following:
“These enhancements will significantly reduce the maximum annual emissions from the CREG [Cleveland Recycling and Energy] Center by an average of more than 25% and also reduce the predicted maximum air quality impact in the nearby neighborhoods by an average of more than 50%.“
However, a chart attached to the same press release shows the following :
- The amount of pollution from soot, which includes fine particles that get into people’s lungs and bloodstream and aggravate asthma and heart disease, is virtually the same in the two proposals, at 78 tons per year
- Emissions of volatile organic chemicals would also remain virtually the same, at an increase of .1%
- “Hazardous air pollutants,” which includes dioxin, lead, mercury, sulfuric acid, cadmium, and hydrogen fluoride, would decrease by only 6.3%
- Dioxin emissions would go up by 38%
- The facility would still be the largest polluter of mercury in the county, at 144 pounds, and lead emissions would be 392 pounds
- Nitrogen oxide emissions would come in just 6% under the federal threshold for major sources of 100 tons per year. CPP claims these emissions would now be at 94 tons, rather than 194 tons. This claim should raise alarms at the regulatory agencies, since permits which contain numbers obviously designed for the purpose of avoiding regulation are known as “sham permits.”
The city’s claim of reducing pollution in nearby neighborhoods by “an average of more than 50%” is a reference to their plan to raise the smokestacks from 175 feet to 200 feet. Of course, this does nothing to reduce the amount of pollution coming from the incinerator and only serves to spread it to more parts of the city, county, and region.
Maybe Mayor Frank Jackson and city officials did not hear what hundreds of Clevelanders were saying over the past two months in their testimony at six public meetings, and their written comments submitted on the draft permit: we don’t want or need this new source of air pollution, in our backyard or anyone else’s.
— Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director, Ohio Citizen Action
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,672 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 14, 2013.
Ohio coal-fired power plants
Resources on proposed Cleveland incinerator
AEP’s Muskingum River Power Plant
Letters to American Electric Power 989 neighbors have sent handwritten letters urging AEP to retire its Muskingum River coal plant as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Duke Energy 2,307 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and telewires urging Duke Energy to retire Miami Fort Unit 6 and Beckjord coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Kokosing Asphalt 8,709 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Kokosing Asphalt to be a good neighbor as of February 25, 2011.
Letters to Rumpke 9,205 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Rumpke to be a good neighbor as of April 15, 2011.
Letters to FirstEnergy 3,914 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging FirstEnergy to retire their four Lake Erie coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Mountaintop removal coal mining
Letters to Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman 6,615 members have sent handwritten letters and petitions to Senator Brown urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
3,751 members have petitioned Senator Portman urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
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