AG HEALEY APPLAUDS EPA FOR PLAN TO REAFFIRM MERCURY AND AIR
TOXICS STANDARDS
Comments Led by AG Healey Support EPA’s Plan to Reverse the
Trump Administration’s Illegal Finding Against Regulating Toxic Air Pollution
from Power Plants
BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey led
a coalition of 23 states and cities in filing comments in support of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to reaffirm that it is
“appropriate and necessary” under the federal Clean Air Act to regulate mercury
and other toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants. That determination,
first made over 20 years ago, is the basis for the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards (MATS Rule), a landmark rule that has substantially reduced emissions
of especially dangerous pollutants that threaten some of our most vulnerable
communities, including children
and historically marginalized communities.
EPA’s plan reverses an
unlawful Trump Administration rule from 2020 that withdrew EPA’s longstanding determination underpinning
the MATS Rule and restores the agency’s prior finding. In comments filed with EPA on Monday, the
coalition agrees with EPA’s proposal to revoke the 2020 rule, which lacked a
reasoned basis and created a serious threat to public health. The comments
point out that the MATS Rule has led to huge reductions in emissions of toxic
pollutants that would otherwise expose communities to dirtier air and
mercury-contaminated fish.
“The Trump
Administration’s rule was an assault on the health of our most vulnerable and
not based in any logic other than to benefit a small number of the nation’s
worst polluters,” AG Healey said. “We commend EPA for prioritizing our children
and communities who face the greatest risk from these pollutants, and we will
continue to advocate for clean air and water.”
As the proposal describes, industry compliance
with the rule has resulted in massive reductions in emissions of hazardous air
pollutants including acid gases, mercury, and other toxic metals such as arsenic,
chromium, and nickel. Since the MATS Rule was implemented, power-plant mercury
emissions declined by 91 percent between 2010 and 2020, and acid gas and
non-mercury metal emissions declined by 96 and 81 percent, respectively,
between 2010 and 2017. Exposure to those toxins causes serious human health
harms, such as pulmonary and
cardiovascular disease, neurological injury, and cancer, and devastates
wildlife and aquatic ecosystems.
Mercury in particular poses serious dangers to public
health, with especially harmful effects on developing fetuses, children, and
wildlife. Airborne mercury from power plants falls back to the ground, where it
is converted into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in the
food chain, particularly in fish. A child exposed to methylmercury consumed by
her mother during pregnancy can suffer lifelong adverse developmental effects
including impaired attention, fine motor function, visual-spatial abilities,
and verbal memory. Mercury exposure is also linked to an increased risk of
diabetes, autoimmune dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease and death in
adults.
Power-plant mercury
emissions are also a major contributor to mercury contamination of U.S.
waterways, which have necessitated fish consumption advisories in all 50 states.
Mercury pollution in lakes and rivers hurts subsistence fishing communities and local
fishing economies and deprives residents across the country of the ability to
enjoy recreational fishing and commercially harvested seafood.
The coalition’s comments point out that industry is in
full compliance with the
MATS Rule, which is providing enormous health, environmental, and economic
benefits to the residents of their states and local governments—and at a
fraction of the predicted cost and with little effect on electricity prices or
reliability.
EPA’s proposal estimates that the MATS Rule’s mercury reductions are providing
hundreds of millions of dollars a year in monetizable direct benefits across
the U.S. population by preventing IQ deficits in children and heart attack
deaths in adults. As the comments underscore, those substantial benefits are
only a small portion of the MATS Rule’s total benefits because most of the
adverse health and ecological harms the rule prevents are not readily
quantifiable. In addition to
effectively controlling mercury and other toxic metals—like arsenic and
chromium—MATS has led to a dramatic reduction in the fine particulate matter
emitted by power plants. Fine particulate matter is the largest environmental
health risk factor in the country and is linked to premature death, aggravated
asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other cardiopulmonary illnesses that
disproportionately affect many historically marginalized communities.
The
MATS Rule represents the culmination of more than two decades of study and
rulemaking by the EPA and was triggered by Congress’s 1990 amendments to the
Clean Air Act. In 2000, EPA determined that it was “appropriate and necessary”
to regulate hazardous pollutants emitted from fossil-fuel-fired plants that are
harmful to human and wildlife health. The agency found that fossil-fuel-fired
power plants are the country’s largest source of hazardous air pollution, and
that other existing provisions of the Clean Air Act would not adequately
address those dangerous emissions. EPA reaffirmed that finding in 2012, relying on a growing body of scientific evidence.
In
2016, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s
decision in Michigan v. EPA, EPA issued a supplemental finding
reaffirming once again that it is “appropriate” to regulate power plant
emissions when the costs of regulation are considered. In 2020, the Trump-era
EPA reversed course, purporting to rescind that determination based on an
incorrect interpretation of the Clean Air Act and in reliance on stale,
inaccurate information that overstated the actual costs and vastly
underestimated the benefits of reducing power plant air pollution. Today’s
comments commend EPA for once again recognizing that overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates
that the enormous health and environmental benefits of the MATS Rule far
outweigh the costs of compliance.
AG Healey’s Office has
long advocated for strong nationwide standards for emissions from power plants.
The office has played a lead role in the regulatory and judicial proceedings
leading up to the adoption of the MATS Rule and since 2012 has been leading a coalition of states and local government in defending the rule from
challenges. In July 2020, AG
Healey led 24 states, counties, and cities in challenging in court EPA’s unlawful attempt to rescind its longstanding
decision that regulation of toxic power-plant emissions was appropriate and
necessary.
Today’s comments were led by AG Healey and joined by
the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa,
Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District
of Columbia, as well as the the cities of Baltimore, Chicago and New York City.
Assistant Attorneys General
Tracy Triplett and Julia Jonas-Day, Special Assistant Attorneys General David
Frankel, Megan Herzog, and Aleksandra George Ruiz, and Paralegal Carly
Pusateri, all of AG Healey’s Energy and Environment Bureau, are handling this
matter for Massachusetts.
