The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce its first-ever standards for mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants today, capping a longtime debate over a rule that Republicans and some utilities have decried and environmental and health groups have hailed.
The agency said in a statement it was planning to make a “significant Clean Air Act announcement” this afternoon featuring Administrator Lisa Jackson. Stakeholders such as environmentalists say they’re virtually certain the EPA will be unveiling the long-anticipated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants, also known as the Utility MACT rule.
The EPA confirmed it had finalized the rule in accordance with a court deadline for Dec. 16. The Utility MACT rule will require a roughly 90 percent cut in mercury emissions from generating units at more than 500 power plants running on coal and oil. The plants also will have to cut other toxic emissions such as acid gases and arsenic.
Congress first tasked the EPA with considering toxic air pollutants in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The agency has said until now it has acted on that directive for every source of the emissions except power plants.
Environmental groups, lauding the agency for finally addressing the issue, have said cited EPA data in saying the rule would save 17,000 lives a year and reduce serious diseases. And environmentalists in Texas have noted the state’s power plants lead the nation in emissions of mercury, a metal that can cause birth defects and neurological problems. People usually ingest it when they eat seafood containing it.
Republicans in Congress, however, have alleged the Obama EPA didn’t adequately assess how the rule would affect electric-grid reliability. Some utilities have said they will have no choice but to shutter some of their power plants — which the rule’s critics say could threaten reliability and cause blackouts.
The EPA puts the cost of the rule at more than $10 billion a year — a point that Republican critics have pointed out in criticizing the rule as an example of regulatory overreach. But the EPA says the health benefits of the rule would exceed the costs by anywhere from five- to 13-fold. The agency also has rejected the notion its air rules would cause blackouts, saying they’ve never done so in 40 years.
Over regulating that costs businesses big to comply are criminal in a downturn. Doesn’t Obama know this? Or does he care?
Rubbish — postulated risk factors pulled from their ???? with NO linked health effects from existing emissions — junk science being administered by people without a clue.
Stopped in 2010. 2012 time to end this bad experiment in government.
Under regulating our businesses leads to pollution levels like those in China, and kills our citizens. Obama does care. When businesses make record profits, they can afford regulations. Unregulated businesses lead to recessions, massive pollution (try Love Canal, etc), and death (look at Massey’s coal mines). Regulations are necessary for a healthy, productive society.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson should be an Olympic diver,
she’s always jumping off into the deep end.
“Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants….”
Seems like a necessity.
What bugs me is that there is no evidence of any health effects from airborne mercury (it’s a very low quantity already). Why are we spending this kind of money and effort to reduce something that is already below the no-effects threshold of concentration? It’s like applying the white-glove test to your kid’s bedroom while the fence in the backyard is falling down. Don’t we have something better to do with our money?
Salt, no one is saying (well, I’m not at least) that there shouldn’t be regulations to protect health and the environment. I’m questioning whether these regulations, which will spend tens or hundreds of millions to reduce emissions that are already well below any known health effects, are worthwhile.
That 10 billion a year is going to come from who????? Yes anyone that pays a light bill. Thanks EPA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4
top five polluter in the USA.
right in fort bend county’s back yard.
where they grow veggies sold at your local market.
http://www.broke-off.com/coalplant/waparish.htm
w.a. parish coal plant in fort bend county, tx
370,000 lbs of neurotoxins released into environment in ONE year alone.
thats 185 tons of mercury, arsenic, hydrofluoric acid, lead, hexachlorobenzene.
happy holidays!