LEOPOLD, Ind. (AP) – The ceiling of Abbey Brockman Middle School English Class in Perry County is covered with images of bright blue sky.
Outside, the real sky is not necessarily blue. Contamination is wafting and shattering from coal-fired power plants in this region of southwestern Indiana. Knowing how much and what it does to those living there is why Brockman was involved with the local environmental organization that has set up air and water quality monitors in her community.
“Industry and government are very, very powerful. It’s stronger than me. I’m just a teacher of English,” Brockman said. But she wants to feel she can make a difference.
In a way, Brockman’s surveillance reflects reports that the Environmental Protection Agency began requesting large-scale polluters more than a decade ago. Emissions from four coal-fired power plants in southwestern Indiana have fallen 60% since 2010, when the rules were in effect.
That rule is currently in the chopping block. One of the many claims by President Donald Trump’s EPA is that it is costly and burdensome for the industry.
However, experts say if businesses are no longer publicly responsible for what they put in the air, dropping the requirements will significantly increase emissions. And they say that while losing data, the EPA is reducing air quality surveillance elsewhere — it will be harder to combat climate change.
The rules called for a big contaminator to say how much they are releasing
At risk is the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, a 2009 rule from President Barack Obama’s administration that affects large-scale carbon contaminants such as refineries, power plants, wells and landfills. Since then, they have collectively reported a 20% reduction in emissions driven primarily by coal plant closures.
And what happens with these big emitters makes a difference. Their decline in emissions accounts for more than three-quarters of all US greenhouse gas emissions since 2010.
The registry includes areas where not typically considered a large-scale polluter, but with significant greenhouse gas emissions, such as university campuses, breweries, and grain factories. Even Walt Disney World in Florida, where pollution has decreased by 62% since 2010, should be reported along with nearly 10,600 other locations.
“We’re a great place to go,” said Jeremy Simmons, former EPA senior climate advisor for the Environmental Protection Network. This group provided calculations as part of an analysis of the impact of Associated Communications from the proposed rule rollback.
Simmons said some companies would welcome the end of the registry.
Experts see the role of registry in reducing emissions
It is not clear how much the registry itself contributes to lowering emissions. Regulation of more targets is a bigger factor, as is coal that is crowded with less expensive and less polluting natural gas.
But the registry said “we are putting pressure on businesses to document what they have done… or at least provide a baseline of what they have done.”
Gina McCarthy, former Obama EPA administrator, said the registry clearly shows how power plants are opposed to each other, and that it is an incentive to reduce emissions.
“It’s money for those companies. It’s cost. It’s reputation. It’s a great success story and I hope it continues.”
The potential end to reporting requirements is because experts say much of the country’s air is not being monitored. Nelson Early Roque, a professor from Pennsylvania who co-authored the study on these “surveillance deserts” in April, said about 40% of U.S. land was not monitored. It often includes poor rural areas and rural neighborhoods.
“The atmosphere is important to all of us, but obviously 50 million people can’t or will never know,” Roke said.
EPA is about to cancel money to fund air monitoring
The EPA is also trying to curb the money allocated for air monitoring, which is part of the end of grants labeled as targeting diversity, equity and inclusion. This includes $500,000, which funded 40 aviation monitors in low-income and ethnic minority communities in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
Cleaneaire NC is a nonprofit organization that works to improve air quality across the state that has been awarded the grant and is suing.
“It’s not diversity, equity, or inclusion. It’s human rights,” said Daisha Wall, the group’s Community Science Program Program Manager. “We all deserve the right to clean the air.”
Research has strongly linked the decline in air quality with diseases such as asthma and heart disease, as it is slightly established link to cancer. Near the polluting industry, experts say either sufficient data for a particular location or willingness to investigate health tolls is often lacking.
Indiana says it “maintains a robust statewide monitoring and assessment program for air, land and water,” but the state’s blockman and others are not satisfied. She and other members of the local advocacy group have the quality of life for citizens of southwestern Indiana, and the Valley has installed and maintained monitors for their own air and water quality. Getting your monitor network up and fighting uneven Wi-Fi and connectivity issues is a full-time job.
The combat industry is a delicate theme, Brockman added. Many families rely on jobs at coal-fired power plants, and poverty is a reality. She puts snacks in her desk for kids who don’t eat breakfast.
“But you also don’t want to hear about other students who have rare cancers,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed from Washington.
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