Anthony J. Alexander

Anthony J. Alexander has been president and chief executive officer of FirstEnergy since 2004. From 2001 to 2004, he served as president and chief operating officer. He also is a director of Ohio Edison Company, Pennsylvania Power Company, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, The Toledo Edison Company, and several other of the company's subsidiaries.

Compensation
In May 2007, Forbes listed Alexander as receiving $8.5 million in total compensation for the latest fiscal year, with a four-year total compensation of $23.08 million. He ranked 16th on the list of CEOs in the Utilities industry, and 270th among all CEOs in the United States.

FirstEnergy Power portfolio
Out of its total 14,819 MW of electric generating capacity in 2005 (1.39% of the U.S. total), FirstEnergy produces 54.0% from coal, 27.6% from nuclear, 8.6% from natural gas, 6.4% from hydroelectricity, and 3.4% from oil. FirstEnergy owns power plants in Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; 65.9% of the company's generating capacity comes from Ohio.

Existing coal-fired power plants
FirstEnergy owned 25 coal-fired generating stations in 2005, with 8,005 MW of capacity. Here is a list of FirstEnergy's coal power plants:

In 2006, FirstEnergy's 7 coal-fired power plants emitted 45.2 million tons of CO2 (0.75% of all U.S. CO2 emissions) and 340,000 tons of SO2 (2.27% of all U.S. SO2 emissions).

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from First Energy coal plants
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from First Energy coal plants
Source: "Health Impacts - annual - of Existing Plants," Clean Air Task Force Excel worksheet, available under "Data Annex" at "Death and Disease from Power Plants," Clean Air Task Force.

Note: This data includes the following plants owned by First Energy: Ashtabula, Eastlake, Bay Shore, Bruce Mansfield, W.H. Sammis, R.E. Burger, Lake Shore

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