EPA: Air Pollution Laws Will Create Jobs, Protect Public | Headwaters

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At a recent meeting in Marquette, Susan Hedman, Great Lakes regional director for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited coal-fired power plants as the largest source of mercury contamination in the United States, a burden often suffered by citizens.

We Energies' Presque Isle Power Plant, in Marquette

Speaking at Operation Action U.P.’s annual meeting, Hedman said, “I would suggest that [power plants] consider the cost that they have been imposing…on you, by failing to do their part. People who live and vacation in the Upper Peninsula can’t eat their fish because [upwind] states haven’t been doing their part to solve the problem.”

Hedman discussed the new Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which will likely be implemented under the Clean Air Act. The rule – finalized in December, but now stalled in court – would reduce power plant emissions crossing state lines that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution in other states. The rule would replace the EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule, adopted in 2005.

Recently adopted Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) would further regulate mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants. In December a coalition representing 125,000 businesses in the United States wrote a letter urging President Obama to implement MATS.

“We believe that failure to implement MATS would create significant uncertainty for the business community and delay investment,” the letter said. ”Our experience has shown that the Clean Air Act yields substantial benefits to the economy and to businesses, and that these benefits consistently outweigh the costs of pollution reductions.”

“The goal of this very flexible rule is to allow electric generators to find the least burdensome and the least cost compliance option,” said Hedman. ”The laws allow power producers three years to upgrade coal plants, a step many have already taken. If three years isn’t enough, operators can request an additional one-year extension.

According to Hedman, the CSAPR would prevent 90% of the mercury in coal burning power plants from being released into the air. This rule would also reduce other metals linked to neurological damage and sometimes cancer, reduce acidic gases by over 80%, as well as thousands of cases of lung cancer, asthma, and chronic respiratory diseases in primarily children and the elderly.

According to an EPA fact sheet, the CSAPR, combined with MATS, will provide annual benefits of $150 to $380 billion, and prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000 asthma attacks, 13,000 emergency room visits, and 2 million missed work or school days every year.

The CSAPR would prevent as many as 34,000 premature deaths, 15,000 nonfatal heart attacks, 400,000 cases of aggravated asthma, 19,000 fewer cases of acute bronchitis, and 1.8 million sick days a year beginning in 2014, while saving Americans up to $280 billion, annually, on unnecessary healthcare costs.

The EPA estimates implementing MATS, alone, will create tens of thousands of jobs, with 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs.

“ I think it should be clear that I completely reject the premise that environmental standards are a regulatory burden that interferes with job creation,” said Hedman. “And the evidence that I have just presented demonstrates that environmental standards actually can help to drive job creation.”

According to Hedman, the CSAPR received unprecedented public support, with roughly 900,000 citizens commenting, the vast majority in support of regulating mercury emissions. The law would have taken effect by the beginning of 2012, but electric generating companies in some states challenged it in court, successfully blocking implementation while the court system reviews the law.

Hedman discussed We Energies’ proposal to close the the Presque Isle Power Plant, in Marquette, apparently due to the newly proposed regulations. According to Hedman, We Energies has excess allowances from its Wisconsin power plants that they could use in Michigan or sell to defer the cost of work on the Marquette plant. Ironically, some of the same companies challenging the regulations in court admit they are not too burdensome.

“So are these rules too much of a regulatory burden?” questioned Hedman. “We’ve seen some court challenges but even the companies that are taking us to court to try to block the regulations admit that they’re really not too burdensome.”

Additional reporting by Gabriel Caplett