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EPA Proposes Rule Change That Would Let Power Plants Release More Toxic Pollution (npr.org)
The Trump administration announced on Friday a plan designed to make it easier for coal-fired power plants, after nearly a decade of restrictions, to release into the atmosphere more mercury and other pollutants linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source].
From a report: The limits on mercury, set in 2011, were the first federal standards to restrict some of the most hazardous pollutants emitted by coal plants and were considered one of former President Barack Obama's signature environmental achievements. Since then, scientists have said, mercury pollution from power plants has declined more than 80 percent nationwide. President Trump's new proposal does not repeal the regulation, known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, but it would lay the groundwork for doing so by weakening a key legal justification for the measure. The long-term impact would be significant: It would weaken the ability of the E.P.A. to impose new regulations in the future by adjusting the way the agency measures the benefits of curbing pollutants, giving less weight to the potential health gains.
In announcing the proposed rule, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement that the cost of cutting mercury from power plants "dwarfs" the monetary benefits. The proposal, which the acting E.P.A. administrator, Andrew Wheeler, signed on Thursday, is expected to appear in the federal register in the coming weeks. The public will have 60 days to comment on it before a final rule is issued. [...] Reworking the mercury rule, which the E.P.A. considers the priciest clean air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry, would represent a victory for the coal industry, and in particular for Robert E. Murray, an important former client of Mr. Wheeler's from his days as a lobbyist.
In announcing the proposed rule, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement that the cost of cutting mercury from power plants "dwarfs" the monetary benefits. The proposal, which the acting E.P.A. administrator, Andrew Wheeler, signed on Thursday, is expected to appear in the federal register in the coming weeks. The public will have 60 days to comment on it before a final rule is issued. [...] Reworking the mercury rule, which the E.P.A. considers the priciest clean air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry, would represent a victory for the coal industry, and in particular for Robert E. Murray, an important former client of Mr. Wheeler's from his days as a lobbyist.
is mentally ill.
President Trump's new proposal does not repeal the regulation, known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, but it would lay the groundwork for doing so by weakening a key legal justification for the measure. The long-term impact would be significant: It would weaken the ability of the E.P.A. to impose new regulations in the future by adjusting the way the agency measures the benefits of curbing pollutants, giving less weight to the potential health gains.
Either the headline is incorrect or the summary is wrong. Either way, once again I'll simply suggest that this is a good reason why bureaucracy shouldn't govern and that Congress should ultimately put forth all laws. Anything less is ultimately too susceptible to change and puts far too much power into the hands of the administration. We did away with kings for a reason.
Topic: Rule change that would let power plants release more toxic pollution.
Content: Rule change that doesn't let power plants release any more toxic pollution.
Comments: Trump is letting plants release more toxic pollution.
TDS in action.
like EPA standards do you really want Congress to try and micromanage every little detail? Or would you rather have scientists doing that work. You know what they call a scientist who works for the government? A bureaucrat.
Also, you should start to question why you're so deeply opposed to bureaucracy. Why the word has such a negative connotation. Specifically, what has a bureaucrat done to you? The cop who gave you that ticket is not a bureaucrat. The clerk who made you wait at the DMV isn't the one who decided how many clerks they'd be. That's your state legislature.
What I'm getting at is that somebody, somewhere, has invested a lot of time and effort into eliciting a certain response to the words bureaucrat and bureaucracy from you.
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Also:
If this proposal is adopted the very next step is to allow more mercury in the air. So yeah, the proposal would let power plants release more toxic pollution. That's because the original executive order relies on indirect economic befits to exist and without considering those benefits can and will be struck down.
Just because it's a->b->c to to get to c (more toxins) doesn't mean b isn't important. Especially when c doesn't happen without b.
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I notice we're all quibbling on the headline instead of discussion the fact that this administration would like very much to increase the amount of mercury in the air.
Article says it's down 80% since the rule went into place, and I'll remind you that there is no safe level of mercury exposure. It builds up over time. Buddy of mine found that out the hard way getting mercury poisoning from tuna...
Once again, we've got our priorities ass backwards.
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Also, you should start to question why you're so deeply opposed to bureaucracy. Why the word has such a negative connotation.
Start to question? This is from years of learned experience pal.
Specifically, what has a bureaucrat done to you? The cop who gave you that ticket is not a bureaucrat.
Here I'll help you understand: The cop was not a bureaucrat. But the people who set the speed limit deliberately much lower than traffic was. The people who mandated the cops had to get a certain number of tickets at the end of the month were.
The clerk who made you wait at the DMV isn't the one who decided how many clerks they'd be. That's your state legislature.
Wrong. They merely set budget - it's again bureaucrats who decide they are better off getting a nice large paycheck rather than adding more front line DMV personnel...
Unseen: The countless ways bureaucrats have hurt you very much indeed by preventing things that might have been.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just curious, how is having the EPA publish their scientific data, as already required by law, anti-intellectual?
The court ruled when the Obama EPA lumped totally unrelated things together in a deliberate effort to obscure the results their study, that was hiding the scientific facts. To me, that's what seems anti-intellectual.
Unless you mean anti pseudo-intellectual?
They CAN publish ancillary possible benefits that could happen with additional regulation, but they are legally REQUIRED to publish their study of mercury levels. It's *illegal* for them to promulgate a regulation without publishing the data they used for that regulation, in this case their study related to mercury levels. That's why the court ordered them to release it and they eventually did so.
So no mention that this rule was originally passed without a cost-benefit analysis?
Nor a mention that the cost is over $9 Billion dollars, but the actual benefit from mercury reduction is $4 - $6 Million?
Nothing about the Supreme Court kicking it back and saying an analysis has to be done?
Or that the benefits calculated in the new analysis is a sham? Where 99% of the benefits are "co-benefits" and are a by-product of mercury reduction?
If the government wants to regulate and achieve those co-benefits, then that's what they should say. Otherwise, if they say they're regulating X, but 99% of the benefits are not because of the regulation of X specifically, then that's not transparent. That's something that is easily manipulated. That's not accountable. That's not how government should operate.
Aside from transparency and accountability, we shouldn't want government passing health and safety regulations regardless of the cost.
Actually, Natural Gas is killing Coal and Nuclear power in the USA. It's just soooo cheap here.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That's exactly the problem, we don't get clear air and water.
We get dirtier, more dangerous emissions when the EPA, under political pressure, lies / distorts the facts about which regulations would best provide clean air and water at a given cost.
Had the EPA released the data as required, some environmentalists, such as those working at environmental action groups, would have read the study and seen that the EPA study said X would help the environment, but instead the EPA did Y. They would point this out and many laypersons who care about the environment would then demand that the EPA put in place the regulations that would actually make a significant improvement.
The public doesn't win by lying about which regulations will do a lot of good and which will not.
Any time this Administration wants to do something deplorable, some idiot always frames it as, "they are just trying to enforce the law!" And any time this Administration changes the law to something deplorable, some idiot tries to frame it as, "they are just enacting their campaign promises!"
Grow a pair. Good policy is good, and bad policy is bad. Stop trying to make it sound like someone else is doing deplorable things. We know perfectly well who is responsible, and why.
The Economic Protection Agency is in the thrall of the Big Giant Orange Head and cannot be relied upon to work for the environment. Not for the duration.