Caps on power plant mercury emissions too costly, says EPA

Bloomberg

The Trump administration is proposing that limits on mercury pollution from power plants are too co- stly to justify and no longer “appropriate and necessary,” a finding that could make it difficult to impose more stringent curbs in the future.
For now, at least, the Environmental Protection Agency isn’t seeking to rescind the 2012 standards, responding to a clamour from utilities that have already spent at least $18 billion complying with the requirements. But the EPA is asking the public to comment on whether it has the authority or obligation to do so, opening the door to a possible future repeal.
And, in another reversal of former President Barack Obama’s environmental policies, the agency now finds that the mercury mandates cost far more than the potential benefits that spring from paring emissions of the toxin. According to the new EPA analysis, the costs of complying with the rule are projected at $7.4 billion to $9.6 billion annually, while monetised benefits are estimated to be just $4 million to $6 million each year.
Environmentalists blasted the move, saying the agency was engaging in “funny math” and cherry picking data to claim the mercury standards are too expensive.

‘DANGEROUS PRECEDENT’
The EPA is “setting a dangerous precedent that a federal agency charged with protecting the environment and public health will no longer factor in all the clear health, environmental and economics benefits of clean air polices, such as reducing cancer and birth defects,” said Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware.
The new calculations represent a dramatic shift from the EPA’s 2012 estimate that that the requirements would lead to $37 billion to $90 billion worth of benefits from fewer asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature deaths — mostly by indirectly reducing airborne particle pollution.
President Donald Trump’s EPA now is effectively ignoring those so-called co-benefits and focussing only on the direct potential benefits from slashing mercury emissions.
Obama’s EPA justified the decision to regulate power plant mercury emissions “almost entirely on reductions in fine particles,” even though “there are many other sections of the Clean Air Act that give EPA authority to regulate
fine particles,” said Jeff Holmstead, an assistant EPA administrator under former President George W. Bush. “For a lot of folks, this was just another example of Obama regulatory overreach.”

NERVOUS SYSTEM DAMAGE
Coal-fired power plants are the largest US source of mercury, a metal that is converted in soil and water into a neurotoxin that can lower IQ, cause motor function deficits, damage the nervous system, and lead to more heart attacks.
Armed with the new cost-benefit analysis, the EPA is proposing it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate hazardous air pollution emitted from power plants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA is also asserting there are no new advances in pollution controls that justify the cost of further reducing mercury and other toxic pollutants.
The EPA isn’t proposing to eliminate the standards directly for now, a recognition that under a 2008 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, the agency generally must go through a separate delisting process to remove power plants from such regulation.
However, public health officials worry the agency is setting the stage to do just that, by seeking public comment on whether it has the authority or obligation to delist power plants or rescind the standards.
“This entire proposal is designed to undermine the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards,” said Paul Billings, senior vice president of advocacy at the American Lung Association. “Asking for comment seems to open the door to finalise a rule that includes rescinding and/or delisting.”
Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund, said the Trump administration was taking a “stunningly immoral and completely unnecessary” step to undermine the mercury standards.

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