New Sierra Club Dashboard Calculates Missouri Toll of Trump EPA Rollbacks

Jefferson City, Mo - Today, the Sierra Club unveiled a new interactive toolthat shows the environmental toll of the Trump Administration's planned rollbacks of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) safeguards on coal pollution in Missouri.

The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard provides data on how much pollution would be reduced if five EPA rules were implemented: the Good Neighbor Plan, Regional Haze standards, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, Effluent Limitation Guidelines, and Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d). These safeguards are in place to curb emissions of nitrogen oxides, mercury, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, wastewater pollution, and other toxic chemicals from burning coal. The interactive tool details each rule on its issue-specific tab and where each coal plant is located on a map.

Eight coal plants operated by five utilities throughout Missouri could escape pollution reductions according to the Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard. Those plants are listed followed by the applicable rule(s):

• Ameren Missouri's Labadie coal plant, Units 1-4; all five rules are applicable.
• Ameren Missouri's Sioux coal plant, Units 1-2; all four rules except the Mercury Air Toxics Standards
• AECI's New Madrid coal plant, Units 1-2; all four rules except the Mercury Air Toxics Standards
• AECI's Thomas Hill coal plant, Units 1-3; all four rules except the Mercury Air Toxics Standards
• Evergy's Hawthorn coal plant, Unit 5; Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d)
• Evergy's Iatan coal plant, Units 1-2; Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d) and Effluent Limitation Guidelines
• Sikeston's coal plant, Unit 1; all four rules except the Mercury Air Toxics Standards
• City Utilities' John Twitty coal plant, Unit 2; Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d)

If the rules were fully implemented, the listed coal plants would annually reduce their collective pollution emissions of carbon dioxide by 30,934,160 tons (58 percent reduction), 594 tons of filterable particulate matter (43 percent reduction), 65,116 tons of sulfur dioxide (76 percent reduction), 5,551 tons of nitrogen oxides (40 percent reduction), and 2,823 tons of coal wastewater pollution (89 percent reduction). Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions present serious public health concerns, as well as particulate matter.

Ameren's Labadie coal plant is one of only three coal plants in the country that could evade all five rules, and is by far the largest of the three coal plants, the other two being in West Virginia. Evergy operates coal plants in Kansas - Jeffrey, Lawrence, and La Cygne - that could also escape pollution reductions. Ameren, AECI, and Evergy could receive these pollution exemptions as their climate plans stall and regress.

Earlier this year, City Utilities joined non-Missouri utilities in a letterto the EPA asking it to erode several of these public health safeguards. Missouri lawmakers passed an omnibus utility billwith massive financial and environmental implications last month, setting the stage for higher utility bills and more pollution throughout the state.

Statement from Gretchen Waddell Barwick, Missouri Chapter Director for the Sierra Club:

"We are witnessing one of the largest transfers of wealth from hard-working families to financially comfortable monopoly utilities in our country's history between state and federal giveaways this year. Missourians depend on clean air and clean water, and we must fight hard for what we need because we're heading in the wrong direction."

Statement from Laurie Williams, Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams:

"The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard demonstrates clearly that with every executive order, Donald Trump is recklessly releasing tons and tons of toxic, deadly chemicals into our air. These EPA safeguards were put in place to shield our communities from toxins that poison children, cause more asthma attacks, more heart attacks, and more premature deaths.

"The American people should be outraged that in the first few months of his presidency, Donald Trump has so callously attacked these lifesaving standards and given Big Coal a free pass to make Americans sicker with no consequence. The Sierra Club will continue to fight these dangerous rollbacks and defend our people from more deadly pollution."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.