EPA reaffirms Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that reaffirms the underpinnings of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants.
The bill required reductions of mercury, acid gases, and other harmful pollutants to reduce risks to public health and help protect the environment. It was reaffirmed in 2016, but in May 2020, the Trump administration reversed EPA’s 2016 finding, undermining the legal basis for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. This week, the Biden Administration reaffirmed the science behind these clean air standards, overriding the Trump administration’s reversal.
Thus, the final rule leaves the current emissions standards unchanged and ensures the continuation of public health protections provided by these requirements.
“When weighing the substantial burden that hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, impose on public health against the reasonable costs of controlling these emissions, EPA finds that it is appropriate and necessary to regulate emissions of air toxics from power plants under the Clean Air Act,” the EPA said in a statement.
Further, the EPA is considering the MATS Risk and Technology Review, directed by President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021, Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” The review would determine whether more stringent protections for hazardous air pollution from power plants are feasible and warranted.
“For years, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected the health of American communities nationwide, especially children, low-income communities, and communities of color who often and unjustly live near power plants,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. “This finding ensures the continuation of these critical, life-saving protections while advancing President Biden’s commitment to making science-based decisions and protecting the health and wellbeing of all people and all communities.”
The MATS, along with advancements in the power sector, have driven sharp reductions in harmful pollutants. EPA has estimated that by 2017, mercury emissions from power plants were reduced by 86 percent, acid gas emissions by 96 percent, and non-mercury metal emissions by 81 percent compared to pre-MATS levels in 2010.
Prior to the MATS, coal- and oil-fired power plants were the largest domestic source of mercury and other toxic pollutants such as hydrogen chloride and selenium. In addition, they were among the largest domestic emitters of arsenic, chromium, cobalt, nickel, hydrogen cyanide, beryllium, and cadmium.
The Edison Electric Institute commended the EPA for its action to restore MATS.
“EEI and our investor-owned electric company members thank Administrator Regan and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for restoring the appropriate and necessary determination underpinning the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. EEI’s member companies have fully and successfully implemented MATS for years,” EEI President Tom Kuhn said. “EEI’s member companies and the electric power industry collectively have invested more than $18 billion to install pollution control technologies to meet these standards. Since 2010, our industry has reduced its mercury emissions by more than 91 percent, and we have seen a significant change in our nation’s energy mix, which is getting cleaner and cleaner every day.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, also praised the EPA for this ruling.
“When the previous administration chose to remove the legal underpinnings of the MATS rule, they ignored the irrefutable science on the devastating impacts that mercury has on children’s health. Fortunately, EPA is now correcting course and bolstering the MATS rule. This decision will help ensure that our nation’s power plants continue to run on effective pollution control technology that protects communities’ health and economic wellbeing,” Carper said.
