I could have told you that without the study
Pollution Study Favors Regulation
By BARNABY J. FEDER
egulation is more effective than relying on voluntary programs to reduce air pollution, according to the authors of a new review of the environmental record of the nation's 100 largest electric power companies.
The report, to be released today, was sponsored by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, which includes environmental, investor and business groups; the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group; and the Public Service Enterprise Group, the parent of New Jersey's largest utility. It focuses on data collected by the federal government from the utility industry covering 1991 to 2002.
The data showed progress in reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, two federally regulated pollutants that contribute to smog and acid rain and are associated with increased risk of heart and lung disease.
But unregulated carbon dioxide emissions, which most scientists say are raising the temperature of the atmosphere and contributing to more violent weather, rose substantially in the 1990's. Utilities generate roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide for each kilowatt of power produced that they did in 1991, according to the report.
"Voluntary programs don't work at all in the utility sector," said David G. Hawkins, a former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency who now directs the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
