WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday
announced a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and
other toxic substances from sources such as power plants, a landmark
measure that could prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths annually,
according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Although mercury is a known neurotoxin that can be
profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women, there has never been a
federal rule setting a standard for its release into the air from power
plants. The current rule has been more than 20 years in the making,
stymied repeatedly by objections from coal-burning utilities — the
biggest source of mercury and other acid gases — and about the cost of
installing pollution-control equipment.
The new regulation does not differ markedly in its
rigorous emissions targets and timetable from a draft rule proposed in
March, despite fierce lobbying to change it. It gives utilities three
years to install pollution-control equipment called scrubbers, with the
opportunity for extensions from regulators on a case-by-case basis.
The rule follows on the heels of several Obama
administration decisions to shelve environmental standards to mollify a
sharply critical business community, including a high-profile decision
this summer to halt new standards to cut smog. The long-awaited rule
governing air toxins is sure to rile powerful utilities and their
congressional allies who have doggedly lobbied the administration over
the last few weeks to weaken or delay the standards.
Said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a
statement: “The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions
of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and
provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the
costs of compliance.”
Environmentalists applauded the step as a historic
leap in efforts to curtail air pollution. “We can breathe easier today,”
said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense
Council, in an emailed statement. “Dirty coal-fired power plants will
have to clean up the toxic soup of emissions that is polluting our air
and making people sick, especially children. This critical update to the
Clean Air Act will reduce child developmental delays, asthma attacks,
heart attacks, and cancer; and save tens of thousands of lives.”
Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability
Coordinating Council, an industry lobbying group, said the sweeping
implications of the new rule mean that utilities would not accept them
easily.
Under the new rule, power plants can emit 1.2 pounds
of mercury per million BTUs of energy produced. Industry had sought a
limit of 1.4 pounds. But the EPA arrived at its figure based on a
formula set out under the Clean Air Act, and analysts said the agency
could not deviate from it.
Companies would have three years to clean up their
emissions of mercury and about 70 other toxic substances, and utilities
could appeal for at least one more year as they install the necessary
equipment. Much of industry has argued that the timetable is too tight
and could lead to rolling blackouts. One group, the American Public
Power Association, told the White House that its members needed more
than seven years to comply with the mercury rule.
About a dozen states have already approved rules to
cut mercury and other toxic substances. A recent study by air quality
regulators in the Northeast showed that Massachusetts’ aggressive
efforts since 1998 to reduce mercury emissions have slashed emissions by
more than 90 percent. Industry has argued that the health benefits of
reducing mercury through a federal standard are overstated.
But the estimated public health effects had played a
considerable role so far in getting the administration to stick to
standards it proposed in March, environmentalists said. Power plants
account for about half of mercury emissions and more than 70 percent of
acid gases.
People get exposed to mercury mainly by eating
contaminated fish. Mercury exposure damages the developing brains of
fetuses and children.
The EPA estimates that by 2016, the proposed rules
could avert 4,700 heart attacks a year and prevent 130,000 cases of
childhood asthma symptoms.
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