Air quality rules go into effect

Dec 22 - USA TODAY

The Environmental Protection Agency released far-reaching air pollution regulations Wednesday, 21 years after they were mandated by Congress.

The rules require coal- and oil-fired power plants to lower emissions of 84 toxic chemicals to levels no higher than those emitted by the cleanest 12% of plants. Companies have three years to achieve the standards, and the EPA has made clear a fourth year, and perhaps even more time, is also available to them.

"We're delighted," says Janice Nolen of the American Lung Association. "After waiting 21 years, it looks like we may actually have a rule that will help to save 11,000 lives a year."

The EPA rules govern multiple toxins, including mercury, arsenic, nickel, selenium and cyanide. Power plants are responsible for half of the mercury and more than 75% of the acid gas emissions in the U.S., the EPA says.

The agency estimates the new rules will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year, as well as 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms.

The nation has about 1,100 coal-fired burners at 600 plants, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told USA TODAY. Currently, 12% already meet the standards, by definition. Another 48% have some if not all of the necessary technologies in place to meet the standards.

The remaining 40% "have done nothing, they have no controls, they emit unlimited amounts of pollutants, they have no technology in place," Jackson says.

But the industry argues the cost of complying will be economic hardship.

"The EPA is out of touch with the hard reality facing American families and businesses," said Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. "This latest rule will destroy jobs, raise the cost of energy and could even make electricity less reliable."

An analysis done for the coalition said the rules, combined with other pending EPA regulations, could cost an average of 183,000 jobs every year from 2012- 2020.

EPA places the cost of compliance at $9.6 billion per year, but calculates yearly benefits between $37 billion and $90 billion, mostly due to fewer people falling ill and dying from pollution.

An Associated Press analysis, which the coalition found credible, estimated that more than 32 of the nation's 600 coal-fired plants would likely close because they would not be cost-effective to run, and another 36 might close.

EPA's Jackson called advertisements suggesting that the U.S. will experience power blackouts "greatly overblown." Utilities are crassly "asking Americans to choose between mercury in their and their children's bodies, and power," she says. "This is just a scare tactic."

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