SILVER SPRING, MD – After great community pressure and the threat of legal action from state regulators, the largest coal-burning power company in the D.C. region finally agreed on Monday to a partial reduction of its damaging pollution emissions. Unfortunately, the agreement doesn’t go nearly far enough and represents only a first step in protecting our regional health and environment from the devastating impacts of coal.

On Monday, the Mirant corporation, after negotiations with Maryland, Virginia and U.S. EPA officials, announced a 2/3 reduction in smog-forming Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions from the company’s four D.C.-area coal-fired power plants. These plants produce most of the region’s electricity. But the agreement actually allows Mirant to increase NOx emissions at its aging and controversial Alexandria, VA plant from the current level of 1,019 tons/year to a new level of 1,475 tons/year.

And just as importantly, Mirant did not agree to cut emissions of the other three major pollutants from coal-fired power plants: 1) sulfur dioxide (SO2) which causes acid rain, 2) mercury which can cause significant health problems in children, and 3) carbon dioxide (CO2) which is driving global climate disruption. Until these three other pollutants are dramatically reduced, Mirant will continue to greatly harm the D.C. region with its power generation.

Mirant announced the NOx reductions after it had already massively violated Virginia’s emission standards for summertime NOx pollution. The company’s announced NOx cuts are still not as much as the company would have had to do anyway had the Bush Administration not dropped enforcement of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review provision. Mirant was under investigation for exceeding emissions standards for other pollutants before the Bush Administration dropped the case.

We call on our leaders in Maryland and Virginia to pass state-based “Four Pollutant” legislation that requires Mirant and other coal-burning power companies to cut emissions of ALL pollutants, not just one.

Coal is a dangerous and unhealthy energy source from the moment it’s mined until the moment it’s burned to produce electricity. Mountain Top Removal coal mining is destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of prime ecosystem in West Virginia and ruining many small communities. Coal is the most carbon intensive energy source, putting a disproportionate amount of global warming gases into our atmosphere. Global warming is the single biggest environmental and health challenge we and our children face.

We need to set a course for a future free of coal, with our homes and businesses powered by clean, renewable energy. We call on Mirant to cut NOx emissions at the Potomac River Plant in Alexandria, to commit to phasing out all of its coal-fired power plants within a generation, and to dramatically cut emissions of the three other major pollutants and fine particulate matter in the meantime.

Gary Skulnik, Clean Energy Partnership, 301-754-0430

Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, 240-460-5838

Eric Schaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project, 202-296-8800