New Report Commissioned By Leahy Shows Clean Air Laws Failing To Halt Acid Rain In Northeast

March 27, 2000

WASHINGTON (March 27) -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) today released a federal report that shows that a key environmental law enacted in 1990 -- designed to crack down on the affects of acid rain -- has failed to live up to that goal, with evidence pointing to a minimal decline in one of the two main contributors to acid rain.

The two lawmakers asked that the General Accounting Office (GAO) -- Congress's respected, nonpartisan "watchdog" agency -- to analyze acid rain trends in the Northeast, specifically to determine whether the 1990 update to the landmark Clean Air Act successfully curbed sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emitted into the air. When released into the atmosphere, these chemical compounds are two of the primary causes of acid rain. The GAO report found that though progress had been achieved in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, there was little change in emissions from nitrogen oxides.

Acid rain can cause significant damage to watersheds, creating highly acidified and nitrate-laden lakes where no fish can survive, as well as acidified soils that have been stripped of necessary nutrients that help plants survive cold temperatures. Acid rain has been a particularly acute problem in the Northeast, as national weather patterns drive pollutants from Midwestern power plants directly into Northeastern ecosystems.

"This report provides fresh and credible evidence that acid rain continues to damage ecosystems in Vermont and throughout the Northeast," said Leahy.

Leahy pointed to a University of Vermont environmental conference this past weekend that showed how vulnerable Vermont's syrup-producing sugar maples are to acid rain and another recent report detailing the declining air quality of America's national parks as evidence of acid rain's pernicious effects. "If we do not act soon to aggressively crack down on acid rain, the region's economy and public health will be endangered beyond repair. We need to update our Clean Air laws with comprehensive, national legislation that forces antiquated power plants to either modernize or shut down."

"Acid rain is having a tremendously damaging effect on the Northeast, and this report details just how the dire situation really is," said Rep. Sweeney. "The Adirondack Park is dying faster than the EPA predicted and is actually losing its ability to buffer acid rain. EPA's worst-case scenario now appears to be the likely outcome."

Specifically, the GAO office found that "total emissions of sulfur dioxides -- one of two major causes of acid rain -- declined 17 percent from 1990 through 1998, but total emissions of nitrogen oxides -- the other major cause -- changed little during the same time period....In the eastern United States, total deposition of sulfur decreased 26 percent from 1989 though 1998, while total deposition of nitrogen increased 2 percent...." Nitrates were found to have increased in 48 percent of lakes sampled in the Adirondacks, a sensitive ecosystem that should be protected under the Clean Air Act.

The GAO also found that the so-called "cap-and-trade system" -- a system that allows power plants to achieve regulatory goals by buying and selling "emission credits" -- may not be working to the greatest benefit of Northeastern states. For example, Midwestern utilities continue to buy up and bank far more credits than do power companies in the Northeast. This net flow of emissions credits to inland states does little to help already damaged ecosystems, such as the Adirondacks, when air currents carrying the pollution simply drift northeast again with the jet stream.

Leahy believes this report will be an impetus for more stringent national regulation of all nitrogen oxide sources. Secondly, he hopes GAO's findings will provide added momentum for his "Clean Power Plant and Modernization Act of 1999," legislation introduced last year that would force 1950's-era power plants to modernize and increase their efficiencies, and would impose increased across-the-board reductions in power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide.

A copy of the GAO report is available upon request.