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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Nine KY Power Plants Violating Sulfur Dioxide Rules

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Thursday, July 26, 2012   

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Some of Kentucky's largest working-class communities are being put at risk by power plants that are violating national clean air standards, according to a new report from the Sierra Club and the Kentucky Environmental Foundation. Their study finds that nine power plants, most located next to major cities, are spewing out more sulfur dioxide than they should be.

It's a major health threat, says Lauren McGrath with the Sierra Club's National Beyond Coal Campaign.

"Even short term exposure, especially for people that already have asthma or for children or elderly, it can be very aggravating for the respiratory system."

McGrath says the study points to an enforcement problem with coal burning power plants and to inaction by lawmakers to tackle an issue so potentially harmful to many of their constituents.

McGrath says while these plants are able to go beyond allowable limits for toxins like sulfur dioxide without fines or penalties, Kentucky families are paying the price.

"Families with asthmatic children are essentially paying for this failure to follow the law. For instance, an emergency room visit can cost over $600 for a family and can easily stack up to being over thousands of dollars."

McGrath says plants that have been in operation for decades and are violating clean air policies should be taken out of service.

"If they retired them and invested in cleaner technologies and energy efficiency, they would save ratepayer money and then they would improve the health of our region as well."

Louisville Gas & Electric has announced it intends to replace its 57-year-old coal-fired Cane Run Station in Louisville with a new plant next door, powered with cleaner-burning natural gas, by 2016.

See the full report at www.kentucky.sierraclub.org.




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