LEOPOLD, Ind. (AP) 鈥� On the ceiling of Abbie Brockman鈥檚 middle school English classroom in Perry County, the fluorescent lights are covered with images of a bright blue sky, a few clouds floating by.
Outside, the real sky isn鈥檛 always blue. Sometimes it鈥檚 hazy, with pollution drifting from in this part of southwest Indiana. Knowing exactly how much, and what it may be doing to the people who live there, is why Brockman got involved with a local environmental organization that鈥檚 installing air and water quality monitors in her community.
鈥淚ndustry and government is very, very, very powerful. It鈥檚 more powerful than me. I鈥檓 just an English teacher,鈥� Brockman said. But she wants to feel she can make a difference.
In a way, Brockman鈥檚 monitoring echoes the reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency began requiring from large polluters more than a decade ago. Emissions from four coal-fired plants in southwest Indiana have dropped 60% since 2010, when the rule took effect.
That rule is now on the chopping block, argues is costly and burdensome for industry.
But experts say dropping the requirement risks a big increase in emissions if companies are no longer publicly accountable for what they put in the air. And they say losing the data 鈥� at the same time the EPA is cutting air quality monitoring elsewhere 鈥� would make it .
Rule required big polluters to say how much they are emitting
At stake is the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program, a 2009 rule from President Barack Obama's administration that affects large carbon polluters like refineries, power plants, wells and landfills. In the years since, they've collectively reported a 20% drop in emissions, mostly driven by the closure of coal plants.
And what happens at these big emitters makes a difference. Their declining emissions account for more than three-quarters of the overall, if modest, decline in all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions since 2010.
The registry includes places not usually thought of as big polluters but that have notable greenhouse gas emissions, such as college campuses, breweries and cereal factories. Even Walt Disney World in Florida, , has to report along with nearly 10,600 other places.
"We can鈥檛 solve climate change without knowing how much pollution major facilities are emitting and how that鈥檚 changing over time," said Jeremy Symons, a former EPA senior climate adviser now at Environmental Protection Network, an organization of ex-EPA officials that monitors environmental policies. The group as a part of from proposed rule rollbacks.
Symons said some companies would welcome the end of the registry because it would make it easier to pollute.
Experts see a role for registry in cutting emissions
It鈥檚 not clear how much the registry itself has contributed to declining emissions. More targeted regulations on smokestack emissions, as well as coal being crowded out by cheaper and less polluting natural gas, are bigger factors.
But the registry 鈥渄oes put pressure on companies to ... document what they鈥檝e done or at least to provide a baseline for what they鈥檝e done,鈥� said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who heads Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tally national carbon emissions yearly.
Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator under Obama, said the registry makes clear how power plants are doing against each other, and that's an inducement to lower emissions.
"It is money for those companies. It's costs. It's reputation. It's been, I think, a wonderful success story and I hope it continues.鈥�
The potential end of the reporting requirement comes as experts say much of the country's air goes unmonitored. Nelson Arley Roque, a Penn State professor who co-authored a study in April on these 鈥渕onitoring deserts,鈥� said about 40% of U.S. lands are unmonitored. That often includes poor and rural neighborhoods.
"The air matters to all of us, but apparently 50 million people can鈥檛 know or will never know'' how bad the air is, Roque said.
EPA seeks to cancel money to fund some air monitoring
The EPA is also trying to claw back money that had been earmarked for air monitoring, part of the termination of grants that it has labeled as targeting diversity, equity and inclusion. That includes $500,000 that would have funded 40 air monitors in a low-income and minority community in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area.
CleaneAIRE NC, a nonprofit that works to improve air quality across the state that was awarded the grant, is suing.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not diversity, equity and inclusion. It鈥檚 human rights,鈥� said Daisha Wall, the group's community science program manager. 鈥淲e all deserve a right to clean air.鈥�
Research strongly links poor air quality to diseases like asthma and heart disease, with a slightly less established link to cancer. Near polluting industries, experts say what鈥檚 often lacking is either enough data in specific locations or the will to investigate the health toll.
Indiana says it 鈥渕aintains a robust statewide monitoring and assessment program for air, land and water,鈥� but Brockman and others in this part of the state aren't satisfied. She and other members of local advocacy groups Southwestern Indiana Citizens for Quality of Life and Valley Watch install and maintain their own air and water quality monitors. It鈥檚 a full-time job to keep the network of monitors up and running, fighting spotty Wi-Fi and connectivity issues.
Fighting industry is a sensitive subject, Brockman added. Many families depend on jobs at coal-fired power plants, and poverty is real. She keeps snacks in her desk for the kids who haven鈥檛 eaten breakfast.
鈥淏ut you also don鈥檛 want to hear of another student that has a rare cancer,鈥� she said.
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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed from Washington.
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Melina Walling, Seth Borenstein, Joshua A. Bickel And M.k. Wildeman, The Associated Press
