Alabama Undercharging Polluters

Alabama is letting industrial polluters off the hook.

At least 18 states are charging industrial air polluters less than the federal minimum standard called for under the federal Clean Air Act, according to a new analysis from the Environmental Integrity Project. They include many states across the South, among them Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.

According to the report, Alabama has a $3.6 million shortfall in collected receipts, or 40% below the EPA minimum.

According to the EPA, states should assess a minimum fee of $39.48 per ton for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, smog-forming volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants. The fees are to be assessed on at least the first 4,000 tons of emissions of each pollutant and are used to monitor air emissions, hire inspectors and enforce regulations designed to meet federal air quality standards.

Let’s see… in 2002 (pdf), the fees collected at the EPA minimum should have been over $8.9 million. If you are keeping score at home, $8.9 million… at $39.48 per ton… that’s over 225,000 tons of “sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, smog-forming volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and hazardous air pollutants” released into Alabama’s environment in 2002 alone.

Actually, it’s easily much more as the report only figures charges on “the first 4,000 tons of emissions of each pollutant.”

This is a public health issue. This is an environmental justice issue. This is a tax justice issue, as the rest of us have to pick up the shortfall from uncollected receipts.

Put another way, that $3.6 million annually is easily more than the cost of the legislative pay raise approved this session.