Mercury MACT Rule Announced by EPA

The US EPA has proposed a new rule setting air toxics standards for utilities. Utilities will have to use Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) in order to meet strict new  emission limits on mercury, arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide.  Here's the start of EPA's press release:

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution like arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide. The standards will slash emissions of these dangerous pollutants by relying on widely available, proven pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of the nation’s coal-fired power plants.


EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.

The  BNA report by Jessica Coomes and Andrew Childers is here.

Craig Rucker, says that the rule is based on "false science and economics."  He is with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) , which  appears to be a conservative advocacy group.  His take on the rule can be found here.