Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules (nytimes.com)

The Trump administration has completed a detailed legal proposal to dramatically weaken a major environmental regulation covering mercury, a toxic chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants, The New York Times reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. From the report: The proposal would not eliminate the mercury regulation entirely, but it is designed to put in place the legal justification for the Trump administration to weaken it and several other pollution rules, while setting the stage for a possible full repeal of the rule. Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who is now the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected in the coming days to send the proposal to the White House for approval. The move is the latest, and one of the most significant, in the Trump administration's steady march of rollbacks of Obama-era health and environmental regulations on polluting industries, particularly coal. The weakening of the mercury rule -- which the E.P.A. considers the most expensive clean air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry -- would represent a major victory for the coal industry. Mercury is known to damage the nervous systems of children and fetuses.

Comments

Re:do I just hang out on lefty sites

[Notabadguy]

Perhaps you should actually read the article you linked to. The standard that you claimed tightened the noose was set in 2008. Under Bush.

I read the article, then the comments. I found it most interesting that while the levels of lead are higher than EPA regulations allow, they're lower than what everyone in the US was exposed to before 1995 from leaded gasoline.