Current Events > Trump EPA proposes rule changes to make polluting easier

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html

The Trump administration proposed on Friday major changes to the way the federal government calculates the benefits, in human health and safety, of restricting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants.

In the proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a finding declaring that federal rules imposed on mercury by the Obama administration are too costly to justify.

It drastically changed the formula the government uses in its required cost-benefit analysis of the regulation by taking into account only certain effects that can be measured in dollars, while ignoring or playing down other health benefits.

The result could set a precedent reaching far beyond mercury rules. It will make it much more difficult for the government to justify environmental regulations in many cases, said Robert N. Stavins, a professor of environmental economics at Harvard University.

While the proposal technically leaves the mercury restrictions in place, by revising the underlying justifications for them the administration has opened the door for coal mining companies, which have long opposed the rules, to challenge them in court. The rules, issued in 2011, were the first to restrict some of the most hazardous pollutants emitted by coal plants and are considered one of former President Barack Obamas signature environmental achievements.

In announcing the proposed rule, the E.P.A. said that the costs to industry in installing pollution controls ranged from $7.4 billion to $9.6 billion annually, while the health benefits of cutting mercury ranged from $4 million to $6 million annually. In other words, it said that the costs of the rule outweigh the benefits.

By contrast, the Obama administration in its calculations had cited an additional $80 billion in health benefits a year.

Among other things, the Obama administration calculations estimated that the rules would prevent 11,000 premature deaths not from curbing mercury itself, but from what is known as a co-benefit, the reduction in particulate matter linked to heart and lung disease that also occur when a plant reduces its mercury emissions. The Trump administrations revised procedures would essentially ignore co-benefits and count only the direct potential benefits of cutting mercury.

In a statement, the E.P.A. said the cost of cutting mercury from power plants dwarfs the monetary benefits and argued that the current limits can no longer be justified as appropriate and necessary under the law.

The proposal, which the acting E.P.A. administrator, Andrew Wheeler, signed on Thursday, is expected to appear in the federal register in the coming weeks. The public will have 60 days to comment on it before a final rule is issued.

During his first year in office, President Trump signed executive orders declaring his intention to dismantle environmental rules. As his second year comes to a close, agencies have set the wheels in motion to weaken or repeal nearly a dozen restrictions on air and water pollution or planet-warming emissions of carbon dioxide, including a plan to reduce the number of waterways that are protected from pollutants and another making it easier for utilities to build new coal plants.

Reworking the mercury rule, which the E.P.A. considers the priciest clean-air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry, would represent a victory for the coal industry and in particular for Robert E. Murray, an important former client of Mr. Wheelers from his days as a lobbyist. Mr. Murray, the chief executive of Murray Energy Corporation, personally requested the rollback of the mercury rule soon after Mr. Trump took office.

The administration loves doing things that cause people to die. Can't get enough of that shit.
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The boomers are committed to destroying the earth before they all die and are going to succeed.
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Dump Trump - the newest Eco-Villian
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dosing mercury is the new punk.
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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Dump Trump - the newest Eco-Villian

Hes literally a Captain Planet character
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Godnorgosh posted...

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

The boomers are committed to destroying the earth before they all die and are going to succeed.

imo

I agree
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Fuck this administration. Those evil fuckwads need to get off our planet. Send them all to Venus.
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Its like he wants America to fail
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"F*** you, I got mine" - Republican Party.
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This is how short-sighted companies are.

They've already spent the money to conform with the rules put in place while Obama was in office.

They're going to spend even more to change back.

And they're going to have to spend even more money to conform with the rules when they're put back.

And they're legitimately asking for this.
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gotta refill the drained swamp with something
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I thought the free market would stop pollution.
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SmidgeIsntBack posted...

I thought the free market would stop pollution.

If it's cheaper to pollute (and it almost always will be), then that's what the free market will do.
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Trump: I wanna make it easier to pollute, but the Democrats literally, gun to my head forced me to shut down the government!
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Guise he is just promoting beautiful clean coal
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The libs and lefties are just hating on the bad orange man for no reason and can't even say why they hate him tho. Or so I've been told.
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Yes it is poor baby boomers.... Cuz these ass clowns are the ones that voted in the worst president of all time.
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legendary_zell posted...

The libs and lefties are just hating on the bad orange man for no reason and can't even say why they hate him tho. Or so I've been told.

I love their usually tepid passive aggressive response of orange man bad
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So, regulation-wise, nothing is changed as of yet. The rules are still in place.

These rules, specifically:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2012/01/25/obama-gives-green-light-to-new-mercury-rules/#1d3c061e5eca

What has "changed" is the cost-benefit analysis. Basically Wheeler and whatever toadies he's paid have "re-crunched" the numbers. What that means is that coal monkeys can sue in court to get the regulation overturned.

Mercury on its own is a pretty nasty exposure. Attacks the brain and can cause some serious issues, birth defects, etc.

The methods the Obama rule put into place reduced that exposure by 90 percent, AND also cut down on a serious amount of particulate matter (dust, smoke, etc.) that gets kicked up. Basically a nice side benefit. That particulate matter is responsible for heart disease, lung problems, etc. Y'know, the usual stuff that comes with burning coal all the time. The savings that were calculated in the original cost-benefit analysis said that, yes, even though it's not directly mercury related, it's kind of nice to not give your workers (and people living around the plants) heart disease and lung problems, so they called it a savings in the analysis.

This new ruling says, nah, we don't care that people aren't being exposed to as much dust. In fact, we don't care that people aren't being exposed to as much mercury, because these methods cost tooooo damn much (when we ignore everything but the mercury directly). Wheeler and the coal monkeys are basically saying that their coal workers are worth killing if it means they won't have to pay as much.

And as was already said, every coal plant had to be compliant by the end of 2016, so they're already compliant. This just says that now they can spend money to sue so that they're allowed to be noncompliant again.

EDIT: As was said in the article, this will be posted on the EPA site for comment, and believe you me, there will be some commenting.
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