Lawmakers Say Coal Plant's CO2 Emissions Not Pollution

Apr 21, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Utah lawmakers don't think carbon dioxide is a pollutant. They plan to include this statement in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. Representative Mike Noel -an ardent critic of environmental groups - proposed the missive.

"To call CO2 a pollutant is a pretty big stretch," Noel says. "Each one of us, as you know, breathe out CO2, plants can't survive without CO2. So as a natural process in photo-synthesis you've got to have CO2 for plants to survive on the planet. Why would we call that a pollutant? That seems pretty absurd to me, as a biologist."

While Noel opposes listing carbon dioxide as a pollutant, he concedes he isn't against regulating the greenhouse gas. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the Environmental Protection Agency has this authority, though the decision does not force the agency to do so. The Sierra Club is testing the strength of the court's opinion by contesting the EPA's permit for a new coal-fired power plant proposed by South Jordan's Deseret Power. The Bonanza Plant is slated to be built in the Uintah and Ouray [OOH-ray] Indian Reservation in northeast Utah. The EPA issued a permit to Deseret Power after the Supreme Court ruling. Tim Wagner, director of the Sierra Club's Utah Smart Energy Campaign, says Utah lawmakers' claims that carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant goes against a large body of evidence to the contrary.

"They're actually going against the Supreme Court ruling, which clearly said to the EPA that ‘Yes, CO2 is a pollutant.' They're going against the EPA which just announced in March that they're going forward with the rule-making process to start regulating CO2. They're going against the overwhelming science community around the world," Wagner says. "And lastly, they're going against the majority of their own constituents, who want this issue addressed. "

Arguments in the Sierra Club's appeal of the Bonanza power plant will be heard next month. Wagner estimates the facility will produce 2-to-3 million tons of carbon dioxide each year - roughly 5 percent of the state's total CO2 footprint. In addition to Noel, Representative Roger Barrus and Senators Scott Jenkins and Darin Peterson are also expected to sign the letter. 

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