More Proof Trump EPA 'Working for Coal Millionaires' as EPA Plan to Weaken Mercury Regulations

More Proof Trump EPA 'Working for Coal Millionaires' as EPA Plan to Weaken Mercury Regulations Revealed

"If anyone needed further proof that Wheeler and Wehrum are still working for coal millionaires, this is it."
by
Julia Conley, staff writer

October 1, 2018

A new proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would weaken a rule regulating toxic pollutants--including mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants—by eliminating government mandates that currently allow regulators to look at the health and environmental costs stemming from industrial waste and emissions.

The agency is proposing a major change to an Obama-era rule which states that when the government considers the cost of compliance with a regulation of a toxic chemical such as mercury, which has been found to harm the nervous systems of children and fetuses, it must also consider the "co-benefits" of the rule. As the New York Times reported Monday:

Under the mercury program, the economic benefits of those health effects, known as "co-benefits," helped to provide a legal and economic justification for the cost to industry of the regulation. For example, as the nation's power plants have complied with [the] rule by installing technology to reduce emissions of mercury, they also created the side benefit of reducing pollution of soot and nitrogen oxide, pollutants linked to asthma and lung disease.

The rollback was included on a "wish list" that coal CEO Robert Murray passed along to Energy Secretary Rick Perry shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, due to the costs of compliance for the coal industry.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/01/more-proof-trump-epa-working-coal-millionaires-epa-plan-weaken-mercury-regulations