The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued its long-awaited Mercury and Air Toxics Standards aimed at reducing dangerous power plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, including arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide. Previously, the U.S. had no national standards for these emissions, despite a Congressional mandate to regulate them under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that has been shown to harm the nervous systems of unborn children, impairing thinking, learning and early development. Other pollutants targeted under the new rules have been linked to cancer, premature death, heart disease and asthma.
The new rules will force between 30 and 50 of the oldest, dirtiest, and mostly coal-fired power plants to be retired. Some of these date back to the early 20th century and, believed to be near the end of their lifetimes in 1970, were granted exemptions from the original Clean Air Act.
More than half of the nation’s coal-fired plants already have pollution controls in place that meet the new standards, which take effect in 2014. Still, power plants are responsible for half of the mercury and over 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States.
EPA predicts that the new safeguards will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks annually, along with 130,000 cases of childhood asthma and 6,300 cases of childhood acute bronchitis. The agency also estimates that every dollar spent on controlling these emissions will generate $9 in health benefits.
