Return to Current Issue

Pollution from electric power plants shortens the lives of 1,310 citizens in Texas, including 93 citizens in San Antonio, and 30,100 Americans nationwide every year according to a new report released by a San Antonio alliance of groups, the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition that includes US PIRG, the Esperanza Environmental Justice Project, Neighborhoods First Alliance, and several unions.

The groups came together at the offices of San Antonio's City Public Service utility in a protest to demand shutdown of a power plant polluting the East Side and other parts of the city. Officials from the utility agreed to meet with community groups, according to T.C. Calvert of Neighborhoods First Alliance. At the top of the agenda will be power plant pollution: specifically, reducing particulate emissions and investing in energy efficiency.

"Pollution from dirty power plants is a serious threat to public health," said Peter Altman, executive director of the SEED Coalition. "More people die as a result of the pollution from these plants than from drunk driving or homicides every year. It's imperative that we treat these plants as the serious threat to public health that they are."

The report, "Death, Disease and Dirty Power: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Air Pollution from Power Plants" was prepared by Clear the Air, a national campaign which takes aim at the nation's outdated power plants. The report was based on research conducted by Abt Associates, a firm used frequently by the Environmental Protection Agency to perform risk analysis and assessments of regulatory programs. The research was developed using methodology approved by the EPA and reviewed by Professor John Spengler of the Harvard School of Public Health. Among the report's findings:

Fine particle pollution from dirty power plants causes mortality in 93 San Antonians each year. Statewide, 1,310 citizens die and 30,100 die nationwide each year due to power plant pollution. A 75 percent reduction in power plant pollution would save 54 lives in San Antonio, 805 lives in Texas, and 18,700 nationally.

Texas has the ninth highest total of deaths from power plants in the country. Each year power plant pollution also causes an estimated 31,700 asthma attacks in Texas, and 603,000 attacks nationally.

A 75 percent reduction in power plant pollution would also prevent 19,100 of these attacks in Texas and would prevent 366,000 nationally.

"Cleaning up power plants would save more than twice as many lives each year as seat belts do," said Altman, citing federal surveys on lives saved by seat belt usage. "The staggering numbers of death and disease due to power plant pollution cry out for Federal actions."

"We appreciate the steps CPS has begun to take to reduce their impact on public health," said San Antonio leader Enrique Valdivia. "However, there is much more to do. We need to further reduce the dangerous pollution from its coal plants and make a serious investment in energy efficiency from San Antonio residents and businesses."