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EPA Issues New Emissions Limits

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that further reduces the sulfur dioxide (SO2) and the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from the electric generation sector. This rule, called the Clean Air Interstate Rule, covers 28 states in the east, the southeast and the mid-west and the District of Columbia.

By 2015, EPA says SO2 will be reduced by 56% and NOx reduced by 61% in those states.

Nuclear power plants generate a significant amount of electricity in these states, preventing 2.8 and 1.0 million short tons of SO2 and NOx, respectively, in those states falling under the annual caps.

The CAIR annual caps on these emissions are 2.5 million tons of SO2 and 1.3 million tons of NOx in the year 2015.

If we don’t keep the nuclear plants in these states operating, the electric industry will essentially have twice the burden they do today to meet EPA’s new limits on these criteria pollutants.

And if we built a few new nuclear power plants in this region, it would sure make it easier to meet those reductions by 2015 – just ten years away!

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