A giant US power company has agreed to the country's largest ever environmental settlement, agreeing to spend billions to slash its emissions of acid-rain gases, the government said Tuesday.
At an estimated cost of more than 4.6 billion dollars, American Electric Power is to cut its emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency said.
The company, one of the nation's biggest coal-fired electricity producers, will also spend 60 million dollars on projects to mitigate the adverse effects of its past emissions, and hand over a 15 million dollar fine.
"The AEP settlement will have an unprecedented impact on air quality in the eastern United States," said Ronald Tenpas, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's environment and natural resources division.
"This settlement is a major victory for the environment and public health, and it demonstrates our continued commitment to vigorous enforcement of the Clean Air Act," he said.
Joined by eight eastern US states and several environmental groups, the federal government accused AEP of making major changes to its power plants that drove up noxious pollution without first getting regulatory approval.
The settlement covers 16 plants in the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia generating a combined amount of more than 20,000 megawatts of power.
The company made no admission of guilt in resolving more than eight years of litigation surrounding its emissions of gases that are blamed for creating acid rain, respiratory disease and ground contamination.
AEP chairman and chief executive Michael Morris insisted that the company operated its plants in compliance with the law.
"But we have also said that we would be willing to consider ways to reasonably resolve these issues. This consent decree represents such a resolution," he said in a statement.
"It eliminates the potentially significant financial risk of pursuing the litigation to its conclusion while still achieving the environmental improvements that both we and the government want."
