Opinion: Dangerous electricity pollution

American Electric Power, one of the country's largest generators of electricity and one of its worst polluters, has come up with a novel way to solve a problem at its coal-fired plant near Cheshire, Ohio. Emissions from the plant wrap the town in a haze of sulfuric acid and rain down milky droplets, soot, white specks and other irritants on the population of 221, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Sulfur compounds are five times higher than the level that can trigger an asthma attack, and the town's residents have complained of burning eyes, headaches and white-colored burns on their lips and tongues.

American Electric Power could have fixed the problem with emission controls on its smokestacks or switched to low-sulphur coal, but that would have hurt the bottom line. Instead, the utility agreed to pay $20-million to buy the entire town of Cheshire and use the land for coal storage. While the offer ends a legal dispute between the company and town's residents, it's not a satisfying one. "Relocation will not be easy, especially for some whose families have lived in Cheshire for generations," said Mayor Tom Reese. "It will be sad, indeed, to see our village disappear."

It won't be sad for the company's shareholders and stock analysts. "Companies want to limit any impact to their bottom line," Bill Kientz, a risk-management consultant, told the Dispatch. "Better to pay $20-million today than potentially having to pay a $100-million jury verdict years later."

The problem won't go away so easily, however. A new study by an independent technical consulting firm, Abt Associates Inc., has projected that air pollution created by just eight power companies will cause 6,000 premature deaths in 2007. Recent medical studies have drawn a clear link between the fine particles spewed out by coal-fired power plants and increased cases of respiratory ailments, lung cancer and heart disease.

Most of the power plants are in the Midwest and Southeast, but their pollutants cause illness as far away as New England. The worst of the eight companies is American Electric Power, whose plants will cause 1,400 premature deaths, according to the study.

This is a preventable threat. In fact, the federal government had made great progress in improving emissions from such power plants. But just as the most recalcitrant power companies, such as American and Southern Co. out of Atlanta, were about to be forced to clean up their dirtiest plants, the Bush administration signaled it would back down on enforcing the law.

Soon enough, towns all across America could be disappearing.

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